


Winterhaven

by chibiselene



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Aster has the hots for Jack the first time they meet it's super cute and hilarious, Epic Romance, Jack takes a bit longer to realize, JackRabbit - Freeform, M/M, lots of action
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-03
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-01-11 01:14:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 26,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1166850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibiselene/pseuds/chibiselene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A world where a child's nightmares can come true, and shadows abduct children to feed off of their fear, a group of people who call themselves the Guardians have risen up and made it their job to protect the children from the shadows. But little do they know there is a master lurking behind the shadows, and he's not happy with it.<br/>The Guardians take base in the Northern country, where the shadows can't survive, and everything is quiet till they find a mysterious young man who doesn't remember who he is, but is the key to finally defeating the shadows once and for all.<br/>They just need to get his memories back first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dead man drowning

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Thanks for stopping by to read Winterhaven!  
> It's going to be a long one, and until I get the hang of writing long chapters, updates are just kind of whenever I can get the chapter done. I'll try to make them weekly, but I can't make any promises.  
> I'll be posting when I make updates on my tumblr  
> moonlit-cravings.tumblr.com is my jackrabbit/writing blog, and where I'll be posting when I make updates.  
> chibi-selene is my personal blog, you don't have to follow me, but you can com say hi anyways if you want \OvO/

Aster stands in the middle of North’s office, waiting for the loud, boisterous man to arrive. He had received a summons early that morning when one of the yeti had barged into his room, said something in yetish that Aster didn't quite catch, and threw an envelope at his head before barging out. Aster stared after the yeti for a while before finally opening the envelope, which just said for him to come to North’s office immediately. 

Aster scowls at the fancy coocoo clock that hangs on the wall next to North’s desk. He had been in here for almost 15 minutes already! He lets out an exasperated groan and runs his hands over his face. It was too early to be dealing with this. He looks around North’s office, taking in all the small details in the crown molding, and the invention designs littered all over the desk, spilling onto the floor. There was a plate of cookies off to the side and Aster figured he must have been working on a new blueprint for some crazy new invention he must have come up with in the middle of the night.

Right when he’s considering just leaving and going back to bed, North barges in, with Toothiana right behind him. As she stands next to him, she shoots him apologetic smile, and straightens out the front of her sari, her long braid falling over her shoulder. “AH Bunny! You are finally here, good, we can get started!” Aster stutters, frustrated. “What do you mean by FINALLY?! I’ve been standing in here for almost 20 minutes!” North just waves a tattooed arm at Aster, laughing before settling down into his chair. “Ah, you fluffy tail is getting worked up, no sweating small issues. But, there is reason I am calling you both in here.” His face gets serious, furrowing his dark bushy eyebrows as he leans forward. 

“Someone has gotten past barrier.”

Aster’s eyes widen as he stares at North incredulously. “You sure it ain’t an animal or something?” When North had first started setting up the Pole years ago, the barrier had still been in it’s experimental stage, which meant anything and everything went wrong. It had been extremely sensitive, and couldn’t tell the difference between an actual invader, or a small animal. But over the years, North had perfected it, and now humans couldn’t get past, but little critters could. North shakes his head. “I can tell difference between little birdie and human bunny, unless it is very big birdie, then is definitely human.” 

Tooth shakes her head in disbelief. “But I thought it was impossible to get past the barrier, not without breaking it.” Aster nods, agreeing. “Even if they managed that, it would take an INCREDIBLE amount of magic, and we both know North that very few people are even that powerful.” North shrugs and picks up a piece of paper from his desk and begins to examine it. “Not sure if threat or not, but can never be too careful. Yeti are posted by all entrances, children are safe in basement nursery, and protection barrier has been put at front gate. All is left is for you two to go check on our intruder.”

Aster makes a noise of complaint about having to go outside, and North laughs. “Use bunny nose to make search easier, yes?” Aster just gives him a growl. “Fine.” He turns and begins to head out of North’s office. “I’ll meet ya by the front gate Toothie.” He calls over his shoulder before heading back to his room to change into warmer clothes. Just a kilt and socks weren’t going to cut it out in the below freezing landscape outside.

By the time Aster has finished bundling up for the trek outside, Tooth is already by the front gate, waiting for him. She laughs at all the layers he’s wearing and he just scowls at her. “I see you are dressed for the weather..” She says, muffling a laugh behind her gloved hand. Aster simply scowls and rolls his eyes. “I ain’t comin’ out here to search for probably hours on end in light clothes. You know I dislike the cold Tooth….” She just laughs at him again and leads the way out the front, the guard yeti opening the gate for them. 

They make their way out to the frozen landscape, the fresh powder from the storm that was currently raging on around them crunching under their feet. Aster thanked the heavens that North had woven magic into their Guardian coats to keep out most of the cold. It was enough for Tooth, but not for him. he pulls his scarf over his nose to try and keep it warm. They haven’t been walking for 10 minutes when Aster smells something through his scarf. He pauses in the middle of their trek to pull down his scarf and take another sniff. The familiar metallic scent bring up memories…. A huge battle, lots of death, and screaming…. Blood everywhere, loved ones… gone... 

“Bunny?” Tooth’s voice brings him out of his daze. “Do you smell something?” He nods, smelling again. “Yeah…. I think it’s blood….” Tooth’s face goes to a look of concern. If someone was hurt, she wouldn’t be able to help them on site, seeing as she had left her medical kit behind. “We should hurry then…. Which way?” He sniffs again, and nods towards the front of a forest of evergreens. “It’s comin’ from in there….” He starts to walk towards it, and she follows, watching him carefully as they approach the forest and he begins to walk down the treeline.

”Alright, it’s comin’ from somewhere around in there….” He turns to face Tooth, holding up a hand as she was about to follow him in. “Tooth, I think you should stay here, and keep a lookout, in case whoever this is isn’t friendly and runs past me out into the open. You’d be able to catch them faster with your wings.” She nods silently and puts a hand on her sheathed scimitar. “Don’t worry, they won’t get past me.” He grins and begins to make his way into the trees. 

As he enters the forest, the ground instantly begins to slope, heading downhill. He follows the scent, carefully making his way through the threes. They stand tall, and are all close together, which makes it that much harder and frustrating getting through them. He runs face first into a few low branches several times before he hears the babbling of what sounds like a river or large stream. “Didn’t know there was a river over here…..” He mutters softly as he makes his way down the slope. As he reaches the bottom, the trees thin out, and he can see a clearing up ahead. He approaches cautiously and sniffs again. He can tell he’s close, the smell was getting stronger. 

He finally reaches the clearing, the river running just up ahead, and begins to carefully make his way down the icy rock beach. He almost loses his footing a few times, cursing as his boots fail to get a good grip on the icy rocks. He follows the scent down the river, carefully walking over the icy rocks till he sees a small form lying on rocks up ahead. In instinct, he draws his short sword, the blade ringing out as he removed it from the sheath, and approaches cautiously. As he gets closer to whatever was lying on the beach, the scent of blood gets stronger, and he can see the form is in fact a person, laying face down, and not moving.

“Hey!” He shouts, to see if he gets a response. When they make no movement, Aster feels his heart pounding harder and he breaks into a run towards them. He almost slips several times, but catches himself and continues to make his way down the beach. When he finally reaches the person, he slides to a stop on the icy rocks and quickly gets down on a knee beside them. It’s a young man, perhaps in his late teens, with white hair. Aster carefully turns him over, and his heart wrenches in his chest. 

The front of the boy’s shirt is torn open, revealing a huge gaping wound on his abdomen. His whole front is soaking wet, water and blood mixing together, making Aster unsure if he was still actually bleeding. Aster sees that the wound goes all the way through him, his shirt torn in the back too, but less bloody. His hair and eyelashes have frozen droplets of water on them, and his skin had no color. “Hey, kid, wake up!” Aster shakes him softly, panic beginning to set in when he still doesn’t get a response.

Aster then notices that he isn’t breathing and he curses softly. He removes his leather glove from his hand with his teeth and frantically checks the boy for a pulse on his neck. His skin is ice cold, like as if his very blood itself had been replaced with ice. Upon not being able to find a pulse, he then checks his wrist next, and places his ear on his chest next to his heart. His heart sinks when his suspicions are confirmed and he finds no pulse, nor hears the sound of a heart beating away in his chest. He sighs softly, and strokes some of the boy’s hair out of his eyes. “Yer so young….” He mutters sadly. 

He sits for a bit, holding the boy in his arms, in complete disbelief. He wonders if he had gotten there sooner, he may have been able to save him. He gives him a pained expression, and begins looks him over. He hadn’t been dressed for this weather, that was for sure. His pants and shirt were thin, made mostly for a warmer, sunny climate, and his boots didn’t seem like the type someone would wear when walking through snow. He guessed that the boy had probably come from the south.

“But how the heck did ya end up all the way up here?” Aster mutters softly. He shrugs it off and decides he’ll investigate it later. There wasn’t anything he could do about it now, not like the boy could respond. “Can’t just leave ya here…. Guess I’m takin you back with me….” He sighs sadly. “Toothie’s heart is gonna break when she sees ya kid…. She can’t stand seeing young people die…. Don’t know why she even bothered to become a doctor….” 

He looks the boy over a bit longer, taking in the details in his face. His lips were thin and blue, but judging on the shape of his lips and mouth, Aster was sure when he was alive, he must have one hell of a smile. His eyebrows are surprisingly dark, given his light hair color, and he had a really cute nose….. Aster shakes his head, bringing himself back into reality. He shouldn’t be thinking about the kid like this. He clears his throat awkwardly. “Well then, can’t leave you out here like this…. lets get you to the workshop….” He holds the boy in one arm as he slips his glove back on, then, slipping his arms under his knees, picks him up and carefully begins to stand.

Aster is surprised by how light he is, given that he was dead weight. As he starts to head back up the beach, he notices a shepherd's staff on the ground next to where the boy had been laying. He stares at it for a moment, studying it, before deciding to bring it along as well. Carefully shifting the boy’s weight in one arm, and kneeling down on one knee so he didn’t drop him, he grabs around for the staff to carefully pick it up.“I’m gonna guess this was yours and bring it along, alright? No harm in that I suppose….”

He makes his way back up the slope through the trees, carefully doing his best to watch his footing, and avoid tree branches. It was a bit awkward, while carrying a body, and having his clothes getting snagged on low branches. He follows Tooth’s scent up the hill to where she was waiting for him. As he finally comes out of the clearing, she jumps up, unsheathing her sword. He yelps, jumping back in surprise, almost dropping the boy. “Whoa whoa, hey, it’s just me!” She makes a frustrated noise, and puts her sword back in it’s scabbard. “Where have you been?! I was getting worried! I almost went in after-” She pauses mid sentence when she notices the boy in his arms. 

“Aster….. Is that….” he nods grimly. “Yeah, this is our intruder.” He shifts the body carefully in his arms. “Though, we won’t be getting any answers out of him.” Tooth’s eyes widen and she lets out a sad noise. “Oh no….” She makes her way next to him and strokes the boys cheek. “He’s so cold.... And his hair is wet.” Aster nods. “I found ‘im by a river at the bottom of the hill. Think he may have come from the south. Look at his clothes, they aren’t made for this weather. And he’s got this big hole in his gut…. might have been what did him in…..” 

Tooth stands next to Aster, studying the boy for a moment in silence. She sniffs softly and wipes away a tear that threatens to fall at the corner of her eye. “We should get back…. we’ve been gone a while, I’m sure North will want to know what has happened…..” Aster nods in agreement, and allows Tooth to lead the long trek back to the Workshop.

 

By the time they finally reach the front gate, the sun has already set, and a storm has begun to stir, the wind howling over the frozen landscape, laying out a fresh snow. North is waiting by the front gate when they arrive, and he raises an eyebrow at them. “You were gone long time. I was beginning to get worried. What took-” He stops when he sees the boy in Aster’s arms, and their solemn expressions. He gives them a sympathetic look, and rubs his eyes, trying hold back the forming tears. “I will... go have yetis prepare grave…. so we can give him proper funeral. I will be wanting to hear whole story later though...” 

Tooth nods, and leads Aster into the workshop, dodging past busy yeti, who are either working on building inventions from North’s blueprints, or are doing construction. A few yeti stop their work to watch them walk past, also giving sympathetic looks. Aster think momentarily how lucky they are that the nursery was in the basement. He wasn’t sure how the kids would react to seeing a dead body. They leave the work floor and take a lift down to the medical wing, which is a few floors down. As they exit the lift, Tooth leads him past all the vacant patient rooms to their destination; the morgue. Tooth obviously didn’t like to go in this room, seeing as she prefered to saving lives as opposed to having to deal with what happens after she wasn’t able to.

As soon as they walk into the morgue, the smell of chemicals and cleaning supplies hits Aster right in his sensitive nose. The place was a bit too clean to him, it made the whole place seem like it was trying to hide the smell of death. Aster places the boy on a table in the middle of the room, and then Tooth begins to remove his personal belongings. Aster begins to strip off all his layers of clothing, till it was just his snow pants, a kilt, and his long sleeved undershirt. After he could move more freely, he began to help Tooth sort through the boy’s personal items. 

There was a satchel with a few personal trinkets, and a journal that was water damaged beyond readable. A sword scabbard with no sword was attached to the boy’s hip,and a well used hunting knife with a cracked handle was strapped to his leg. Aster removed both and put them on the table with the satchel. He also finds a locket around the boy’s neck, and upon opening it, finds that there was a picture inside but that too had been water damaged beyond recognition. Aster sighs as he sets it aside and starts to examine a carved piece of driftwood that had been inside the satchel. 

He greatly disliked having to deal with this. Death, and what came after, for the people who were left behind. Aster could imagine how the family was going to react when they found out about this. If the family was even still alive. They could have been involved in something bad and the boy could have been the only one that made it out. But apparently not without a cost. Aster glances back over to the boy, eyeing the wound again. Though he could have perhaps been sent off to war, and gotten caught up in a battle. He could have been taking part of the fighting that was going down in the south, but Aster was doubting that, for he wore no military uniform, and his weapons seemed more like hand me downs rather than military issued. 

Aster looks over to Tooth, who is getting ready to begin removing the boy’s ragged clothes. She begins with his shirt, readying a scalpel to cut open the front of his shirt. She carefully cuts the shirt off, and is about to start removing it when the boy’s eyes suddenly open wide, rolling over on his side vomiting water over the side of the table.Tooth screams and falls backwards onto the ground, staring wide eyed at the boy, clutching at her heart. He begins attempts to sit up, gasping for air, looking around the room, his eyes wide and full of fear and confusion. Aster is staring at the boy, his jaw slack in complete disbelief. A million things began running through his head, trying to find the logic behind how it was even possible. He had no pulse just moments ago, he hadn’t even been breathing. But he is there, taking deep, shuddering breaths, crystal blue eyes wide with shock, and confusion.

“W-where…..” he takes a look around the room, his shaking arms barely holding him up on the table. He looks down at his abdomen and he breathing starts to become more ragged and panicked. Aster follows his gaze and notices that his wound was bleeding PROFUSELY. “TOOTH!” Aster leaps into action, going straight to the boy’s side and catching him carefully as he starts to fall back onto the table. Tooth is shaken somewhat out of her state of shock, and shakily gets on her feet, still staring wide-eyed at the boy.

Aster wraps an arm around the boy carefully, as not to startle him, and grabs his scarf from the table next to them to press it against the boy’s wound to hold back the bleeding. He can practically hear the boy’s heart racing in his chest, his breathing shaky and uneven. He would have to distract him from his wound, so he decided to keep him occupied by asking questions. “Hey, kid...” the boy tears his gaze from his wound and looks up at Aster. Aster rack his brain trying to come up with something to say. “What’s your name?” He looks back up at Aster, and seems to have to think for a minute. “J-Jack…. Jack Frost….”

“Alrighty then, Jack, do you remember how you got here?” Jack shakes his head. “I… I don’t remember… I don’t remember anything…. Just...my name….. Why can’t…. I remember…” He’s shaking again, his bloody fingers clenching into Aster’s shirt, and his eyes widen, realizing what was happening. “Tooth, Snap out of it! He’s goin’ into shock!” Tooth’s eyes widen as she finally gets ahold of herself and she nods. 

She runs over to her medical bag on the table and pulls out a syringe. “Morphine. This’ll calm him down…. it’ll knock him out for a little while, and ease a bit of the pain he’s feeling too.” She approaches Jack, but his eyes widen in fear upon seeing the needle and he begins to frantically shake his head. “Shhhh, Jack it’s ok, she’s just helping you….” Aster attempts to calm him down, rubbing his thumb on the back of Jack’s neck in slow circles, soothing him. Tooth carefully takes his hand and inserts the syringe in his arm, injecting the morphine into him, and almost instantly, his eyes begin to droop and he falls back into Aster’s arms. 

“Well, it’s safe to say we don’t need this room anymore at the moment, huh Tooth?” Aster shoots her a small grin and she gives him a shaky laugh. “Yeah, but if we don’t get him treated soon, he might end up on this table again. Let’s get him into a bed, so we can treat his wounds.” Aster nods and carefully picks Jack up, being cautious as not to jostle him too much so he wouldn’t disturb the wound,and keeping his scarf pressed up against the wound to hold back the bleeding.

Tooth quickly leads Aster out of the room, and just as they are leaving, North is approaching them from down the hall. “Ah! Yetis are almost done with digging!” He sees their frantic faces and holds up a hand to stop them. “Wait, What is going on here?” Aster shakes his head, giving him an apologetic look. “Sorry North, we’re in a bit of a rush, but you can tell the yetis that the grave won’t be needed anymore.” North raises a confused eyebrow at Aster and looks down to see Jack in his arms, who was breathing, and bleeding out all over Aster. His eyes widen and he nods, moving aside so they can pass him. “You two still owe me explanation later!” He calls after them as they rush away.

Tooth leads Aster into one of the empty rooms in the medical ward, and Aster sets Jack down on the bed carefully. “Alright, I need you to get me some hot water, and lots of clean rags.” Aster nods, and gets up to get to work, but stops, and hesitantly turns back round, looking down at Jack in concern. Tooth notices and smiles, putting her hand assuringly on his shoulder. “He’s going to be fine Aster…. OK? We’ll fix him up...” He nods, and turns to leave the room to go get what Tooth had requested. Tooth watches him leave, and sighs before turning back to Jack and rolling up her sleeves. “Alright then Jack, lets get you fixed up.”

 

Aster smiles softly as he watches Jack rest, his chest moving up and down confirming that he was in fact breathing. Tooth walks over and puts a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I’m really glad, that he’s ok….” she says softly, squeezing his shoulder. Aster chuckles, his eyes not leaving Jack’s sleeping form. “He sure gave you a fright, yeah? Haven’t heard ya scream like that in a while…” 

Tooth huffs and lightly smack his shoulder. “How else was I supposed to react to that? Your expression didn’t exactly embody the definition of calm either you know….” 

Aster grins and shrugs. “Yeah I suppose… Though North looked like he was gonna cry. He really hates it when the youngins are done in too soon… He’s got such a soft spot for kids….” 

Tooth just laughs. “Aster, if there’s anyone here that’s got a soft spot for kids, it’s you. Especially for Tina and Sophie” She teases, poking him softly in the side. He just scowled and swatted her hand away. “Yeah, not my fault the little sheilas enjoy my company.” 

Tooth rolls her eyes and begins to pack up her medical supplies. “Well, we should go check on the kids. Tina is probably worried about me, and I’m sure Sophie wants to see you. We can have one of the yeti look after Jack if you want.” 

Aster shakes his head. “I wanna be right ‘ere when he wakes up….” He takes Jack’s hand in his and strokes his thumb over the top of his hand, furrowing his eyebrows. “He doesn’t remember ANYTHING Tooth, just his name. Can you imagine wakin’ up like that? Not knowing a thing about yourself, and having a huge gappin’ wound like that? He must’ve been terrified…..” Tooth pats his shoulder, attempting to comfort him. “He’ll be fine Bunny….. he just needs a bit of time to rest and heal. It’s probably just a bit of amnesia, I’m sure he’ll get his memories back eventually...till then, we can do whatever we can to make him feel welcome,and comfortable.” 

Before Aster can say anything else, Tina, Tooth’s little sister, pops her head into the room. “Tooth….” She whispers shyly, edging her way into the room. Tooth turns to her sister, and kneels down as she approaches. “Tina? What’s wrong?” She glances down at the floor shyly, attempting to keep from having eye contact with either of them. “North wants to see you and Bunny in his office….” Aster groans and rubs his face, remembering their promise to North that they would explain what had happened. “Can’t he just… wait?” Tina shakes her head. “He said it was… um… ur-urgent….” Aster looks over at Tooth and gives her a pleading look. “Could ya just go talk to him Toothie? I wanna be here in case Jack wakes up…..” 

Tooth frowns and crosses her arms. “No. I just went through hell Ethan Aster Bunnymund, and you are going to go with me to North’s office and help describe what EXACTLY just happened.” Aster opens his mouth to argue, and she tuts, putting up a finger up. “NO. ARGUMENTS.” He sighs, and looks back at Jack sadly, before looking back over at Tina. “Hey sheila, think you can do me a favor? It’s a very important job.” Tina’s eyes brighten and she nods. 

“Can you sit here with Jackie till we get back? And if he happens to wake up while we are gone, can ya come get us?” Tina looks over at Jack, and hides behind Tooth. “Is he mean?” Aster laughs softly and pats her on the head. “I doubt it, but if he IS mean to ya, then you have permission to be mean right back. Besides, he’s a bit drugged up right now, so he’s going to be out for a while. He should still be out like a light by the time we get back, Tooth’s meds are pretty strong.” Tina looks back over at Jack again, contemplating, before smiling and nodding. “Ok, I can do that.” 

“Right, good on ya.” Aster grins and pats her on the head as she takes his seat next to Jack’s bed. “Now remember, if he DOES happen to wake up, come get us, ok?” Tina nods, and gives them both a big smile before turning back to face Jack, watching him like a hawk. Aster chuckles softly and leads Tooth out of the infirmary, towards North’s office.

 

Jack awakens slowly, his eyelids feeling heavy, and unrelenting as he attempts to open them. He blinks, and blearily looks around. He doesn’t remember getting into a bed….. or even stepping foot in this room…. He doesn’t remember anything…. Except…. Waking up, vomiting up water…. and there was so much red…. he was bleeding, he had been in so much pain….. and then…. there had been those comforting green eyes, and that deep, soothing voice. It had helped him calm down, a bit. He moves to sit up and is met with a stinging pain in his stomach. Wincing, he moves the blankets covering him to look down, and sees his stomach was wrapped up tightly in a bandages. 

He sighs and lays back down against the pillows, contemplating what to do next. He couldn’t just sit here, in this bed… He wanted to explore, figure out where he was. He supposed he could probably try to remember who he was…. He closes his eyes and tries to figure out what to do. He rather explore… The pain in his stomach wasn’t TOO intense. He nods, deciding that was the best plan, besides just sitting in bed.

He pulls back the covers to get out of the bed, and is met with a very obvious fact that he was very much naked under the covers. He blushes and pulls the covers up to cover himself, even though there was no one else in the room. He spots a armoire on the other side of the room, and decides to go take a look to see if there were any clothes that could fit him. He wraps the blanket around his waist and makes his way over to begin rummaging around in it. He finds a pair of dark leather pants and a blue high collared shirt, deciding that it was good enough, and slipped the clothes on. 

As he begins to leave, he notices that there was a chair next to the bed. He wonders if someone had perhaps been watching over him while he had been asleep, and shrugs it off, figuring they had probably left to go do something else. He leaves the room and walks down the hallway to begin exploring.

Tina makes her way down the hall back into the room with a mug of water and some porridge. She had figured that the boy would probably be thirsty or even hungry whenever he woke up, and had decided to go get him some food. She beams happily to herself at how the boy would probably be happy to have something to drink when he woke up. 

She enters the room, and freezes in the doorway. The bed was empty, the blanket strewn off all the way to the armoire in the corner of the room, which was open. She feels tears beginning to well up in her eyes, feeling responsible for the missing boy immediately. If she hadn’t left, she could have been here when he had woken up….. She drops the mug and bowl onto the ground and takes off running to North’s office, where she knew her sister and Bunny would be. They would know how to find the boy, and get him back in bed.


	2. Birth of a hero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH WOW  
> I'm SO sorry this took so long ;A;  
> I've been busy with work, and just a big procrastinator  
> Please enjoy this chapter, and let me know what you guys think!  
> I love reading your comments!

Aster sat back in his chair nervously as North flipped through a few books scattered across his desk. After he and Tooth had explained to North what had happened, North had immediately gone to the huge bookshelf next to his desk and began pulling down several old, dusty books with runes Aster didn’t understand. Before Aster knew it almost an hour had passed and North was still flipping through the books - not having said a word to either Tooth or himself. 

Aster found himself glancing over towards Tooth, who just shrugged and sat back in her seat as  
well, getting comfortable. He sighed and ran a hand over his face.

If anyone could find an explanation as to how Jack had somehow “rose from the dead” he supposed it would be North.

His train of thought was shattered as North jumped up from his chair with an exclamation, “AHA! THIS IS IT!” 

Tooth was startled as well, jumping a bit in her chair. They both looked at North eagerly, waiting for him to explain as he continued to read from the book for a bit before nodding triumphantly and closing it up.

“As suspected, is not coincidence, Jack's predicament,” he states, gathering up his books and placing them back on the shelf.

North settled back down into his chair and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk. “It is magic, as I thought. Though, it has been a long time since I had heard about it, so wasn't sure if memory was playing tricks. Is like this: Body is in danger, signaling magic inside, and is put into frozen state, till safe again. So, he appears dead, but in fact, his whole body was frozen in time, preserving him.”

Aster raised an eyebrow. “That’s a bit brief North. Doesn’t say anything else?” 

North shrugs and shakes his head. “Is not all it said, I simplified, is very complicated wording. This rare magic, not seen everyday.”

“Wait, are we talking old rare, or never seen before rare?” Tooth asks, suddenly very curious.

“We are talking old rare, like Bunny.” North nods his head at Aster to make him an example.

“Oi, watch it, I ain’t that old!” 

North laughs, and shakes his head. “Bunny, you are mistaken. Your magics are old, not you yourself. It comes from inheritance yes? You have element magics, plus shape shifting. They are two completely different types of Magic. One is natural and one is inheritance.”

Aster sighs and nods softly. “Yeah yeah, I know how it works. So, what yer sayin is, Jack’s got inheritance magic that protected him from dying?” 

North nods, glad that they were finally catching on. 

“That being simplified version I suppose. But point of all this is, Jack is having no memories of what happened to him, or even who he is. He may not know what his powers are, and what happened to him. Am thinking his magic is repressing his memories, perhaps to keep him safe from remembering something. We will not know for sure until we can figure out more about him.”

“But his memory loss could also just be simple amnesia,” Tooth cuts in. “We don’t know for sure it’s just his magic that’s repressing his memories. Amnesia can be caused by a lot of things, so saying it’s his magic is a big assumption.”

North shrugged and shifted in his chair. “Is true, but if his magic froze his body, perhaps his memories are still frozen? He may have also awoken too soon, causing his memories to be repressed. It’s just possibility Tooth.”

Tooth opens her mouth to argue when the door to North’s office bursts open, and Tina runs in, tears streaming down her face. “T-tooth, I… He… I’m sorry!” 

Tooth quickly gets up from her chair to comfort her sister. “What’s wrong Tina? Did something happen to Jack?” 

Aster’s eyes widen and he gets up as well, kneeling down next to the hysterical girl.

“I… I thought he might be hungry… or thirsty, when he woke up, so I went and got him some porridge and water… but when I got back, he was gone…” Her voice starts to get frantic as more tears start to fall from her eyes. “I’m sorry! I wasn’t gone that long… I didn’t think he’d get up so soon!”

Tooth’s eyebrows furrow in concern. “He shouldn't be up yet. That was enough morphine to keep a grown man asleep for at least a day. Its only been several hours….”

North grins and taps the side of his head. “See? It is being magic my dear.”

Tooth rolls her eyes, and stands up. “Well, if that’s the case, then he’s going to be in a lot of pain as soon as the morphine wears off completely. We need to find him before it does. Come on Aster, I need you to smell him out.” She pats the top of Tina’s head gently. “Why don’t you stay here with North, OK?”

The small girl quickly shakes her head, her tiny braids swaying from the action. “I wanna help! It’s my fault he got away…” She sniffs again, wiping her nose on her sleeve.

Aster puts a hand on her shoulder and gives her a grin. “Good on ya, sheila. We can definitely use yer help. Don’t worry, we’ll find him.” 

Tina nodded her head, and followed them out of North’s office. 

They head down the hall, and start to walk around the workshop. They poked their heads in rooms and around the testing area to see if they could see the white tufts of hair wandering around anywhere.

When they are about to run out of places to look on the main floor, Aster is at the end of his wits. He takes a deep, calming, breath through his nose, when he picks up a familiar scent.

“Oh bloody hell….” He mutters softly. 

“Ok, what’s wrong?” Tooth says, concerned.

Aster sniffed again to make sure his nose was telling him what he assumed to be right before he nodded in affirmation and turned towards Tooth. “He used the lift.”

“So…. he’s got to be on one of the lower floors then? Maybe we should try stopping at all of them till you pick up his scent?” Tooth suggests.

Aster nodded and they all got onto the rickety wooden lift to begin their descent down. They stopped at all the floors, but each one they came out empty handed in finding their missing patient.

After they are done searching in the toy house floor, where North stored all his less dangerous inventions, Aster made a frustrated noise. “Not in the workshop, the bathhouse, or even the toyhouse. Where the hell else could he be?!”

Tooth pats Aster on the shoulder, comforting him. “There are still two floors left Aster. I’m sure he’s on one of them.” 

Aster just grumbles softly. “Yeah, well, there isn’t exactly anywhere else for ‘im to hide now, is there?”

Tooth rolls her eyes and smacks his shoulder. “Alright wise guy, why don’t you go check the nursery, me and Tina will take the housing floor.” 

Aster grumbled more but nods in agreement as Tooth and Tina get off on the housing floor while he took the lift down to the nursery. 

As soon as he reaches the floor, his nose picks up on Jack’s scent and he grins. “So, you are here, eh Jackie?”

He gets off the lift and carefully enters the nursery. He makes his way down the hall till he sees a light on, streaming through the underside one of the doors. He comes up to the door quietly, pushing it open, and is surprised by the sight he is greeted with.

 

Jack chuckles as all the kids showed him their things in the room, from toys to their favorite books. The little girl currently in his lap, Sophie, was showing him her drawings and finger paintings.  
He still wondered how he had been able to find this place. When he had left his room he had felt some sort of pull to this particular location. Whatever that pull was had taken him to the mechanized lift and somehow he had known to go to this specific room. When he had entered, he had been bombarded by the kids, and for some reason, it had been surprisingly easy to talk to them.

He winced as Sophie adjusted herself in his lap to reach across him for another painting to show. The pain in his stomach was getting worse and he was wondering if his wound had reopened when Sophie had jumped into his lap. Jamie, Sophie’s older brother, said something to him – breaking him from his thoughts.

“Huh?” Jack asked him, feeling guilt for missing his question.

Jamie frowned softly. “I asked if you were ok…you were kind of spacing out…”

Jack laughed and waved him off. “Yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking about something, don’t worry.”

Jamie was about so argue but Sophie’s face lit up and she began to wiggle in Jack’s lap, causing him to wince as his stomach stung painfully.

“Bunny!” She squealed happily, attempting to stand up and in the process jabbing her tiny knee right into Jack’s stomach.

He grunted and made a confused face at the young girl’s exuberant exclamation.

“Bunny?” He questions, turning to follow Sophie’s gaze. 

Jack’s gaze landed on a man who was walking into the doorway. He was tall with dark skin and dark green eyes. Jack blinked in disbelief at the man’s attire, though. His torso was covered in a tunic but…was he wearing a kilt?

It took Jack a moment to recognize him too, but soon Jack realized it was the man that had comforted him when he had woken up bleeding.

The man approached them and knelt down to catch Sophie in his arms as she leapt out of Jack’s lap to throw her tiny arms around his neck.

“Hey sheila, you behavin?” He muttered softly towards her as he playfully poked her sides, causing her to giggle and squeal. After they have their moment, the man looked up at Jack and frowned. “Yer supposed to be in bed ya-”

Jack interrupts him, nearly shouting in the process, “Wait! Your name is Bunny?! As in the tiny, fluffy, little creatures that like carrots?”

Jack laughed at this, clearly amused with the man’s nickname.

The man Jack was currently laughing at simply rolled his eyes, picking Sophie up in his arms and standing up. “Yeah, please don’t call me that. Nickname is for the kids only.”

Jack grinned mischievously. “Ok then, how about, Bunbun? Fluffy? Cottontail? You know what? I think I’m just going to stick to all of them, see which one I like best.”

The man blushed and begins to stutter. “O-oi, m’ name’s ASTER! I’d prefer you not start givin the kids new nicknames for me.”

Jack just laughed in response to Aster. “Ok kids, looks like the big mean bunbun is taking me away, so we’ll have to play later, alright?” All the kids whined as Jack stood up. “Don’t worry; I’ll be back later…”

Aster frowned against the idea of Jack getting out of bed again. “Yeah, no. You ain’t coming back here till you're better. The kids can come visit you if they wanna see you, but for now you need to rest and get better. That means staying in bed. Now come on, I’m pretty sure your meds are starting to wear off.”

Aster grabbed Jack’s arm and led him out of the nursery.

Jack turned around to face the kids and waved as Aster dragged him away. “Bye guys, I’ll see you later!”

Aster continued to drag him out of the nursery and into the hall. They reach the lift and Aster gets on, dragging Jack along with him.

Jack wasn’t entirely happy with being manhandled like this, which was why he spoke up. “You know, you’re pretty rough with a guy who has a hole in his stomach.”

Aster just rolls his eyes. “Ya seem pretty ok fer a bloke who has a hole in his stomach.”

As they make their way back up to the main floor Jack started to feel the medicine wearing off gradually. He winced as the lift jolted to a stop on the main floor and Aster began to once again drag him after. Jack faltered a bit and Aster turned to look at him, his face full of concern.

“Hey, you a’right?” He asked, sounding genuinely worried.

Jack is now slumping over a bit, his breathing getting a bit heavier. He laughs softly, wincing, but feeling the need to reply.

“I uh…think those meds are wearing off…”

Aster sighed softly before tucking an arm under Jack’s knees and behind his back, lifting him up bridal style.

“This is why ya shoulda stayed in bed….” Aster growled, shifting Jack carefully in his arms.

Jack just laughed in response again and leaned against Aster’s shoulder. “What fun is that? There wasn’t anyone there to talk to and I felt the need to explore.”

“Ya can do all the explorin ya want after you’ve healed. Now, let’s get ya back in bed…”

They made it back to the infirmary where a woman and young girl seemed to be waiting. The woman turned to them as soon as the entered followed by her releasing a sigh of relief.

“Oh thank god you found him.” She stated. “Is he ok? Are you in pain? Did your wound open up? Let me-”

“Oi Tooth calm down, he’s fine!” Aster laughed softly as he carefully placed Jack back down onto his designated bed. “His meds are just wearing off. Can you give him some more? But, uh, maybe not the strong ones? We still need him to talk and havin him pass out isn't goin to help us find any answers.”

“Well, I suppose…” The woman, who was apparently called Tooth if he had heard Aster right, replied as she went over to her medical bag and pulled out a little vial. She took it over to Jack, holding it out for him. “Here, drink this…It’ll relieve some of the pain, but not all of it.”

 

Jack takes the vial, and looks at it sceptically. “What’s in it?”

“Its just a special painkiller that I came up with. It’s 100% organic, all natural materials.” Tooth flashes him a reassuring smile.

He gives her a shaky grin before upending the vial - promptly making a disgusted face.

“Ok, no offence, but it tastes like dirty feet.”

Tooth laughed and takes the bottle from him. “That’s fine, it’s supposed to taste like that.”

There’s a knock on the door, and a large, boxy built man entered the room, having to duck because of the low doorway. “AH! I see you found our guest. How are you feeling?”

Jack shrugged towards the man. “My mouth tastes like feet… But besides that, and not remembering who I am and what happened to me, I’m fine, I guess…”

The burly man nodded his head shaply. “Then, I am supposing you would like some things explained, yes?”

Jack looks down at the bandages wrapped around his chest and nods.

“Alright. Tooth, Bunny, may I have have a few moments alone with Jack?”

Jack watched as Tooth looked over at Aster, who then looked over at Jack with a worried expression. 

“Yes, it’s fine North. Come on Bunny, Jack will be fine…” Tooth grabs his arm, and with what looked like a surprising amount of strength, dragging Aster out of the room, the young girl Jack had yet to get the name of closing the door right behind them.

“Now….” North grabs a chair and takes a seat next to jack’s bed.

“Let us talk. My name is Nicholas St North. I am sure you want some answers, yes? Go ahead.”

Jack bites at his lip nervously and looks down at his hands. “I uh… I don’t really know where to start… Maybe… where I am? Current events? I dunno… Uh… What’s up with the kids in the nursery? Do their parents work here or something?”

North gave him a chuckle and held up a hand. “Ok, I will explain. We are in a country in the North. It is mostly cold and snows a lot.” He pulls a small book from the inside of his jacket and opens it up to a marked page. It is a map, Jack notices it, and reads the names of the two land masses on it in a clear print.

“The northern country, where we are, is called Hebernis Villa. The southern country, down here, is Aestas Terra. These two countries climates are massively different. Hebernis is always winter, and Aestas is always summer. They have their own somewhat changes in climate, Hebernis will have season where there is very short time of no snowing. Aestas has time where weather is not AS hot. The border here…” 

With that, North points to a large curvy line going separating the two countries.

“This is boarder, which we call Gelatum River. It is large River that divides two countries. The areas here, right by the border, are on similar climates. It is cold, but not as cold as further into Hebernis, and colder than anywhere else in Aestas. But this river, has never frozen. It is enchanted. Even if it snows, it will remain unfrozen.”

Jack nods, taking in all the information. “Ok, so I’m no expert, but, if a country is snowing all the time, how do you guys grow food? You can’t rely on trading all the time….”

North chuckles, and shrugs. “Is true, we cannot grow plants on frozen ground. And there is trade, but very little further up here in the north. There are very few people who live too far up North, and the few that do have to travel to this city here, Goldsbur, which is only place where you can get fresh food that you cannot grow up here. It is less cold, and about about two weeks walk in snow. Four days if you take sleigh. Most places who cannot go to town, and must rely on making artificial climates underground to grow food. We have one here, and Bunny maintains it with his magic.” 

Jack’s eyes get big and he grins in excitement. “Magic? It is like, rare or something to have?”

North chuckles softly. “No, no! Everyone has bit of magic. Is all mostly different, and some are stronger than others. You can have more than one ability, but depending on skill you have it can take months or years to master. People who are born with their magic have easier control of it, and there are those who get inheritance magic. Inheritance magic is rare and very powerful magic, depending on how many generations has inherited it.”

“Ok, but…. why is it so rare?”

“Is like this…..” North shifts in his chair. “Not all magic is powerful, and most is usually common, like say, shapeshifting, or ability to combine mobility with still objects. I can combine my magic with items, enchant them. Most items here in workshop are combined with my magic. And even after I die someday, they will continue to be enchanted unless I release them from enchantment. I can make it so clothes will be warmer in the cold, or that backpacks stay waterproof. I even add charm to my inventions or toys, to make them move. Toothiana, she can grow wings, make her super fast. She is also doctor, and that is natural skill she had produced. Has nothing to do with her magic, but she is ok with that. 

Jack nods, showing North he was listening and urging him to continue.

“Bunny has two magics. He can shapeshift, which we will not talk about, because is sore subject with him, and he has inheritance magic. Has ability for new life, plants mostly. But can also be used to help birth of new baby, or even heal someone on the brink of death. But is very dangerous that one, if not done properly, can kill both parties. He is also very good artist, but that is also natural skill he learned. We believe, Jack, that you might have inheritance magic, and is very powerful.”

Jack looks as North, confused. “Really? But….. Why would I have it?”

North shrugs. “Is not something we know. Inheritance magic is passed down to people, usually in families. When someone has strong, very powerful magic, they pass down to younger generations. Each generation can learn something new, and it will be passed down to next owner. The more often magic is inherited, the more powerful it becomes- but there is catch. Giving away such powerful magic comes at cost. 

Jack nodded, hearing North’s tone change.

“It will usually kill the person who is giving powers away, which is one main reason as to why most do not give away their magic unless they are on death bed. There are inheritance magics that are thousands of years old, and they are some of the most powerful magics in existence. But not all magic can be inherited. People who have two magics can only chose one to pass down, they cannot do both. And it is usually noble families that have inheritance magics, but sadly, most have… disappeared. There a few left, and one of most well know is the King, who lives here…” North points to the edge of the winter country, just by the ocean. “He lives by ocean. There used to be a noble family that lived with him, but they have not been seen in many years.”

Jack nods in understanding. “So… do you guys have any clue as to what my powers are?”

North chuckles and shakes his head. “I am sorry, but you are going to have to find that out yourself. You’re natural born magic will perhaps be easier to figure out, as you were born with it, and is a natural part of your body. Your inheritance however, will not be as easy.”

“Ok, so, let me see if I got this… winter country, really cold. Not a lot of people live up here, too cold to grow food. Why don’t more people just live in the Aestas? It’s got to be a lot warmer, and obviously easier to grow food, right?” Jack asked, curious.

North’s jolly face turns grim, and he lets out a sigh. “Ah, yes, it is, but, it has become… dangerous.” North paused before continuing. “Many years ago, these shadow beings began to emerge. They were taken lightly, as there were not that many, and they were easy to kill. But, they were still dangerous. They preyed on children, stealing them away from their homes in the night, never to be seen again. They were to be disposed of on site, and for time, it was under control. But numbers one day increased dramatically. They were everywhere. The towns further South were first to get attacked. There were no survivors. They had gotten stronger, and no one knew why. Their only target was the children, but if adults got in the way, they were killed. We have discovered that they cannot survive in cold, and so people have been moving up here, to be safe. Is tragic, but there is nothing we can do. We do not know if they have nest, or if they even have place to return. It has been about 8 years since the first major attack, and not many people know much about them. You cannot capture them, they do not speak, and they are beastly creatures. It is disturbing to see them up close.”

North remained quiet for a moment before he spoke again. “People have moved to the north to keep their children safe, and to get away from shadow creatures. There are still people that live in the south, but there are very few children. The children here at the Workshop are kids we have rescued from the south. Their families died protecting them to get them here. We believe you are from Aestas, your clothes match what they wear down there. ”

Jack listens to North, an idea slowly forming and he gestured to his wound. “So… do you think… one of those shadow creatures did this to me?”

“I do not think so. According to Tooth and Bunny, your wound was made by a sword, and from what we know, they cannot wield weapons. Your attacker is perhaps human, we believe you were in conflict, and badly injured. You had sword sheath, but no sword. Most of your personal belongings were either ruined from water damage, or do not say anything about you. I am sorry Jack…”

Jack sighs and lays back against the pillows. “It’s… fine, I guess… I mean, it’s just temporary, right? I’ll figure it out eventually.”

North laughs and pats Jack on the shoulder. “Good, that’s the spirit, stay positive! Now, is there anything else you want to know?” 

Jack sat there for a moment, and thought, before shaking his head. “No, I don’t think so. You pretty much answered almost all my questions.”

North chuckles, getting up from his chair. “Alright, then I will be sending Tooth and Bunny back in here. If you wish, I would like to examine journal in your bag. It is water damaged, but with bit of magic, I may be able to figure some things out.” 

“Uh, sure, go ahead..” He felt no emotional attachment over something he didn’t really remember anyways.

“Excellent! I will let in Tooth and Bunny now.”

North waves at Jack before exiting the room. Moments later, Tooth and Aster enter, giving him cautious looks.

“You alright mate? What did North say?”

Jack just shrugs, settling back a bit more into his pillows and shooting a grin at Aster. “Just talked about climates, the two countries, creepy child abducting shadow beings and magic powers. You know, normal stuff.” 

Aster rolled his eyes in response. “Alright smarty pants, if ya don’t have any questions for us, why don’t ya try to get some rest. We’ll bring ya some supper later.” 

“Oh, wait! I need to give him some more medicine!” Tooth exclaims, running over to her bag.  
She pulls out her syringe, which Jack cringes at.

“Yay more needles…” He mutters sarcastically as Tooth cleans a spot on his arm before inserting the needle.

“Shush. It’ll help you sleep better, and relieve your pain.” She removes the needle and disposes it into the trash. “There, now, get some sleep.”

Jack nodded, starting to settle down into his blanket and closed his eyes when he got comfortable. He cracks an eye open to see Aster was letting Tooth leave first- but had halted as he was about to exit before turning back to face Jack.

“Don’t try ta sneak off again, yeah? We’re watching you….” 

Jack just chuckles at his threat before rolling over. “Yeah yeah, I know…. See you later cottontail….”

Jack hears Aster growl softly at the nickname, and he chanced another brief look, seeing Aster’s face and noticing that he was blushing softly before he grumbled, “I told ya not to call me that…”

Jack smirks as he hears Tooth giggle at Aster and Jack just knew that Aster had rolled his eyes. 

“I dun wanna hear it…” Jack heard Aster mutter to Tooth before they walked out of the room. 

 

As Aster and Tooth left the room he glanced over to her, seeing her toll her eyes before taking Tina’s hand, following after her.

“I was pretty sure you were going to stay with him, you know…. keep an eye on him. Earlier you were so adamant to stay with him- now you can’t wait to get away from him. What’s up with that, hmmm?”

Aster blushed, and growled. “it’s nothin, just… earlier I felt bad for ‘im… He didn’t really remember who he was. I dunno how he can be such a smart ass, when he barely even remembers who he is. And the hell is up with that smile of his? It’s too bright! He shows too much teeth…” 

Tooth giggles as they walk down the hallway. “Oh my goodness, BUNNY, do you have a crush on Jack?!”

Aster almost trips and stutters, turning to stare at Tooth in astonishment, his face bright red. “N-no! Why the hell would ya think THAT?!”

Tooth just shares a laugh with Tina, and continues down the hallway- not looking back at Aster who was gaping at her back.

“Oh, I don’t know…. maybe it’s the way you treated him when we found him….. or how you looked at him while he was sleeping earlier? How RED your face is just from me mentioning it…. But you know, if you’re denying it, I suppose it isn’t true.” Tooth Steps inside her office and closed the door behind her.  
Aster heard Tooth and Tina share a laugh at his expense as he stood stock still in the hallway, thinking over what Tooth had just said.

She was right though… He felt… SOMETHING for Jack… The more he thought about it, the brighter his blush became.

“Oh bloody hell…” He mutters, covering his face with his hands. “I DO…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys, thanks for reading and hopefully reviewing ;D  
> Leave a comment on what you thought, it really helps inspire me to work on the next chapters!  
> Also, I made a playlist for music that greatly inspired me to come up with the Idea for Winterhaven, give it a listen!  
> http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/Winter+Haven/94551408  
> Also, Frostedpaws on tumblr made me some art:  
> http://moonlit-cravings.tumblr.com/post/75319877921/frostedpaws-gall-freaking-darn-it-i-messed-up  
> http://moonlit-cravings.tumblr.com/post/73787247530/frostedpaws-commission-work-done-for  
> Special thanks to cheeky and Holly for helping me edit, seriously, you guys are the best thanks so much! <3<3


	3. Magic of Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I am REALLY sorry that this is so late. I meant to try and get out weekly updates, but unfortunately my life is a little crazy right now. I'm hoping to have a new job soon, if my job interview on Wednesday goes well.  
> But here, have a bit of Winterhaven.  
> And if you guys can guess where I am getting the titles of the chapters from, kudos to you.  
> Please enjoy this chapter my wonderful friends and editors helped me with.

Chapter 3

 

Jack wakes the next morning, slowly coming out of his drug induced sleep. He yawns and rubs his face before looking around the room. He was the only one there and it seemed like no one had come to see him yet that day. He sits in bed for a little while, counting the tiny patterns in the ceiling for awhile before he gets bored and starts to move to get out of bed. At that moment the door opens and he quickly gets back into bed. Aster comes in through the door carrying a tray of food and gives him a sheepish smile.  
  
“Hey mate, you’re finally up. How you feelin?” Aster takes a seat next to Jack and places the tray on a small table next to his bed.   
  
“I’m ok, I guess. How long was I out for?”   
  
Aster chuckles, and begins to set up the tray in Jack’s lap. “About five or six hours. Tooth doubled your dose of painkillers, but it still didn’t keep you down long enough. You hungry?”   
  
Jack’s stomach answers for him, growling softly, causing him to blush and grin.  “I guess I am…..”   
  
Aster just laughs and hands him the tray. “Well, Tooth says you’re on a light diet while your wounds heal. I’ve got ya some oatmeal here and a cup of tea. Eat up.”   
  
Jack carefully takes the tray and begins to eat. Aster watches him carefully and smiles softly.

  
“So…” Jack says between mouthfuls of food. “Why are you here? Got something to talk about cottontail?”   
  
Aster immediately scowls at the nickname and rolls his eyes. “Naw, just wanted to uh…talk.”

 

Jack nods and finishes off his oatmeal before chugging down his tea. “Alright, what do you want to talk about then?” Jack stares intently at Aster as he waited for him to speak, causing him to shift nervously in his seat.  
  
“Well…” Aster pauses, trying to figure out what to say. His eyes catch Jack’s personal items on the edge of the bed and he nods towards them. “You uh…go through your stuff?”   
  
Jack leans over to grab his staff and turns it over in his hands. “Not really…it’s just…a piece of wood.”   
  
Aster holds out his hand and motions to the staff. “Can ah see it?”   
  
Jack nods, picking up the staff and places it in Aster’s hands. Aster looks it over and smiles softly. “This staff’s got a bit of wear on it. It’s smooth, which means you’ve handled it a lot. And it’s hand carved too. Nice piece of wood, made from a tree found near the Winter Shores.”   
  
He hands the staff back to Jack, who looks at it with a puzzled expression. “Winter…Shores?”   
  
Aster chuckles softly and nods. “It’s a tree that grows by the Winter palace, which is by the ocean. The tree is strong enough to withstand the harsh winds that come from the sea and can withstand the extreme cold as well. It used to grow all over the shore lines, but a lot of people cut them down because the wood could be used for a lot of things. Just one log can burn for over 24 hours, and they were used to make ships that could withstand any storm. Also makes really good chairs apparently. I think North has a few of ‘em around here…needs them too, to support his weight…” He chuckles softly at that. “His sleigh is also made of it. That thing has been through a lotta shit and it’s still standing.”   
  
Jack looks back down at his staff with a newfound respect. ”That’s pretty cool.  So…since so many people cut them down, are there none left?”   
  
Aster shakes his head and shrugs. “There probably are, but not by the palace. The trees used to protect the shores from the harsh winds, and kept ice off the palace, but now since the trees are all gone the palace is unprotected from the ocean winds. Haven’t been there in a while myself, but last time I went it was quite a sight.”   
  
They sat there in awkward silence for a few moments, not really saying anything as Jack continued to stare at his staff. Aster clears his throat and stands, taking Jack’s tray from the nightstand.

  
“Right uh, I’ll let you rest then. I’m gonna go take this back to the kitchen.”   
  
Jack nods absently, but continues to stare at his staff in wonder. “Alright, thanks Bunny…”   
  
Aster scowls lightly at the nickname, turning to leave the room with a light blush forming on his cheeks.

                        

* * *

 

Aster makes his way down the hall to take Jack’s empty bowl and cup to the kitchen, grumbling to himself. He passes Tooth on his way and doesn’t say a word to her, causing her to turn and watch him walk away. She raises a curious eyebrow at him but continues towards Jack’s room. When she enters she sees Jack staring at his staff intensely.

 

She smiles at him even if he didn’t pay her any mind at first as she went over to the side table next to his bed to place her medical bag down. “Morning. How are you feeling?”

Jack just shrugs and continues to stare at his staff. “Ok, I guess.”

 

Tooth smiles and sits down next to Jack. “Your staff suddenly really interesting to you?”  
  
Jack nods and sets it down at the edge of the bed. “Yeah, Bunny told me that it’s apparently made of some sort of special wood that grows on the Winter Shores?”   
  
Tooth grins and motions for him to lift his arms so she can remove his bandages. “It’s called Ice Oak. It’s called that because they look like they are made of ice. But…” She tosses the used bandages into a trash bin by the bed and begins to carefully pull off the gauze on Jack’s wound. “When they cut them down the ice melted and revealed just a normal tree. But the wood is so strong that in order to carve it they had to let the wood soak in warm water for days in order to soften it.”   
  
Jack winces as she peels away the blood covered gauze before she began to carefully clean out his wound.  “That’s…pretty cool.  Are there a lot of things like Ice Oak up here?”

 

Tooth nods, still concentrating on cleaning Jack’s wound. “There are. The North is full of strange and mystic things. Some are harmless, like the Ice Oak, but others are not to be messed with. The Nightmares aren’t the only dangerous things in the world. There are ancient creatures up here that are not to be taken lightly. That is why most of the villages are down South more. Any further North, and they wouldn’t be safe. We here at the Workshop are on the edge of the border, so we occasionally see them. The barrier protects us from the more vicious ones. There are some that do not mean harm, but you still don’t want to approach them. They can go from harmless to vicious in a heartbeat but,” Tooth finishes cleaning the wound and begins to put new gauze over the wound followed by beginning to wrap it, “you don’t have to worry about those.  As long as you stay within the barrier and don’t go off by yourself. If you ever need to leave the workshop, take someone with you. Specifically North or Bunny. He complains about the cold, but he knows his way around up here.”  
  
Jack nods and watches as Tooth finishes wrapping the bandages around his chest.   
“There, you’re all set. You’re healing rather fast by the way. Should be a hundred percent within the next week or so.”   
  
Jack nods and looks down at the bandages as Tooth begins to clean up and put her supplies away. “So uh…how fast I’m healing?  Is that normal?”   
  
Tooth pauses and looks over at Jack before she shrugs. “I suppose. I mean, you do have magic so it’s not a big surprise. It also usually depends on you, but we’re just going to have to wait and find out what kind of magic you have, which will hopefully be soon!” She says quickly when Jack’s face falls a bit. She puts a hand on his shoulder in encouragement and smiles. “We will, don’t worry. You just need a little help remembering. When you get well enough, I’ll get Bunny to help you try and remember, Ok?”   
  
Jack nods, still quiet as looks over at his staff. “Thanks Tooth.”

 

She smiles and pats his shoulder before giving Jack another dose of painkillers. “Try to sleep, it’ll help you heal faster. Someone will be back later to bring you lunch or dinner.”

 

Jack gives her a sleepy yawn as a reply soon as the drugs began to kick in.  He lays back, closing his eyes.

 

Tooth gathers up her supplies and quietly leaves the room, closing the door behind her.

                        

 

* * *

 

Jack wakes up a few hours later and stays laying down staring at the ceiling. He supposed he had woken earlier than he was supposed to and with no one expecting him to wake up so soon he begins to think about exploring. He grins and sits up, throwing back the covers, getting out of bed. He grabs his staff and ponders.

  
Maybe he could explore a bit more today. If he timed it right, he could sneak around and get a good look at the place before anyone even realized he was gone.

  
He peeks out of the room, looking down both ways of the hallway to make sure no one is coming before slipping out of the room and quietly shutting the door. He makes his way down the hall, light on his feet as he passes all the empty rooms of the medical ward. He takes the lift down to the main floor where all the yeti were busy doing some sort of construction on the building. 

He decides to go down one more floor, which apparently leads to the housing floor. He roams the halls down there for a bit, occasionally peeking into the rooms before deciding he was bored. He is on his way back to the lift when he hears noises on the other end of the hall. His curiosity gets the better of him and he follows the sounds. The closer he gets the more he realizes it’s yelling.  
  
Upon reaching the door he carefully opens it and peeks inside. It appears to be some sort of gym. There are weapons and weights lining the tall walls and what appears to be dummys stuffed with straw that people could practice and take their frustrations out on. 

There are some battle cries in the corner of the large room and Jack sees Bunny twirling around a quarter staff with a wickedly sharp looking blade at the end. The air whistles around him as he twirls it around, cutting the head off one of the dummies he had set up around him before he spins around to cut down the base of another. He strikes the “heart” of one off to the side after that and cuts the last one in half from the temple all the way down to the base.

 

Jack watches in awe as Bunny straightens and accepts a towel from a yeti that Jack hadn’t seen previously.  “Thanks Phil. Can you set up some more targets? I’m gonna do some throwin’ knives next.”

  
The yeti grunts something at him and begins to pull out some targets from a small room in the corner and hangs them up on the wall. He turns to start walking away when he sees Jack standing in the doorway. He raises a bushy eyebrow and grunts at Bunny, who doesn’t seem to be listening as he puts on a belt full of various sized throwing knives. 

“Phil, ya might wanna get outta the way mate. Don’t wanna send ya to the medical ward, Tooth would have my head.” Phil rolls his eyes and moves out of the way, beckoning for Jack to enter.

 

Jack grins, quietly stepping into the room and leans against the wall to watch Bunny throw some knives at the targets. Bunny doesn’t seem to notice him enter as he begins to throw the knives, hitting each target on the bullseye. After he runs out of knives, he turns to take off the belt and hang it back on the wall when he sees Jack leaning against the wall and grinning at him.

  
“Jack?! What the bloody hell are ya doing here?! I thought you were asleep?!”

 

Jack just flashes him a wide grin. “I did for a little while, but I woke up. I got bored and decided to explore. This place is huge! I almost got lost a few times.”

 

Bunny frowns going over to him and grabbing him by the wrist. “You aren’t supposed to be here! You gotta be resting, you’re still injured.” He begins dragging Jack towards the door to take him back to the medical ward.

“Wait, wait! Come on, I wanna watch you practice some more, please? You have some pretty awesome moves. Where’d you learn to fight like that? Can you teach me to use my staff like that? Maybe I can add a blade at the bottom too…” Jack is cut off by Bunny groaning loudly and rubbing his face.

 

“By the gods, please, stop talking. Alright, you can watch. But that’s it. When you get better, I’ll teach ya, but only when you are better, got it?” Jack grins and nods enthusiastically. “Good. Now, go sit down on that bench over there. Phil is going to make sure you don’t try running out onto the floor. I don’t want ya getting in the way and getting hurt.” With that, he motions to Phil, who had just finished removing Bunny’s knives from the target and was putting them back onto the belt.  “Phil, keep an eye on him, yeah? Make sure he doesn’t get up from the bench, I am doing archery next.”

 

Phil nods and leads Jack to the bench in question, sitting down and patting the spot next to him, ushering for Jack to sit next to him. Jack laughs softly, taking a seat next to Phil, and turns his attention to Bunny. “So, how’d you learn to fight with all these weapons?”  
  
Bunny shrugs as he grabs up his bow and quiver of arrows. “I’m Pooka. Was raised to learn how to use as many weapons as I could.”

 

He draws the drawstring back on the bow after grabbing up an arrow.  He then let’s the arrow loose. It buries itself into the target, right at the edge of the bullseye circle.  
  
Jack watched with fascination as Bunny drew back another arrow and let it loose shortly after, this one hitting the center of the bullseye yet again. “What’s a Pooka?”   
  
Bunny makes a frustrated noise and lets another arrow loose before answering. “It was a tribe of people that live in Aestas, pretty far south, really warm all the time. We were a warrior tribe, skilled in all sorts of hand to hand combat techniques and weapons.”

 

He lets another arrow loose and it buries itself right next to the first one.  
  
Jack frowns. “Where? What do you mean? Aren’t they around anymore?”

  
Bunny pauses before sighing and letting another arrow lose. It misses the bullseye and hits the circle outside it. “No, there aren’t and I don’t feel like talking about it anymore so shut yer gob and just watch.”

 

Jack winces as Bunny snaps at him and nods. “Right...sorry.”  
  
Bunny goes to draw another arrow and pauses, taking a deep breath before letting it loose. It hits the the outside of the bullseye circle again and he growls softly before turning and freezing when he faces Jack. His heart sinks at the look on Jack’s face and he growls yet again, rubbing his face.

 

“Look, mate, I’m sorry…didn’t mean to snap at ya.  It...it’s just a touchy subject, alright?” Bunny watches as Jack doesn’t look up and nods, running his hands over his staff.

 

Bunny sighs and motions for Phil to get up so he can sit down next to Jack. Phil just rolls his eyes and goes over to the targets to begin removing the arrows. Bunny sets his bow down on the ground before he sits down next to Jack and puts a hand on his shoulder.

 

“Hey, uh…how about I give ya a demonstration with yer staff?” Bunny hopes changing the subject will cheer Jack up a bit and he smiles when Jack turns to him with bright blue eyes lit with excitement.

 

“Really?”

Bunny chuckles lightly and nods. “Yeah, come on, give it here.” Jack puts his staff in Bunny’s outstretched hands, and he tests the weight of it quickly before nodding. “Alright, sit back mate, I’ll show ya how it’s done.”

                        

* * *

 

Tooth was distraught. She had decided to go check on Jack because it had been several hours since he had been given his medicine and upon entering his room, found his bed empty.

  
She raced down the hallway of the living quarters to the gym. Bunny should still be there, doing his usual two hour weapons practice. He would be able to help her find Jack quickly. She bursts into the gym and before she can even say anything, she see’s Bunny, with Jack’s staff and jack was sitting on a bench off to the side.

 

“Jack!” Tooth shouts upon taking in the scene.

 

Bunny jumps and Jack turns to see her storming towards him.  “Oh, hey Tooth, Bunny was just showing me- ACK! H-hey!”

 

Tooth doesn’t even let Jack finish as she goes over to him,  grabbing him by the ear and dragging him over to Bunny. “What is he doing here?! He’s supposed to be in bed!”

 

Bunny winces at her tone and grins sheepishly at her. “I know, but he just wanted to watch. He wasn’t doing anything, just sitting there. Was gonna show him a few moves with his staff.”

 

Tooth frowns at him and puts a hand on her hip. “You couldn’t have informed me that you were going to drag him down here out of bed? I was worried sick! He’s still hurt you know!”

 

Jack makes a pained noise and Tooth’s grip on his ear remains tight. “Yeah, uh, injured person here.  What’s with you guys and manhandling me while I am hurt?”

Tooth sighs and releases Jack’s ear reluctantly before she turns her attentions back to Bunny for an explanation. “I didn’t drag him down here, he snuck out of the medical ward to explore cuz he was bored. Not my  fault you can’t keep him in bed, Tooth. Maybe you should give him some books or something to read while you keep him cooped up in there.”

 

Tooth sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose at Bunny’s explanation. “Fine, I’ll give him some history books to read. Maybe a few maps. Might help jog his memory.”  
  
Jack clears his throat and they both look over at him. “Uh, hate to break this up, but are you going to make me go back upstairs? I honestly feel perfectly fine and I kind of want to watch Bunny a bit more.  If that’s ok?”

Jack stares at her with big blue eyes and she sighs, nodding.  “Alright, you can stay. But only for a little bit longer. When you guys are done Bunny is to escort you back to the medical ward and to your room. I’ll get you some books to read for while you are in bed.” She turns to Bunny and glares at him. “If he does this again, I won’t go easy on you.”

 

With that she turns and storms out, cursing in a tongue that Jack didn’t understand.  
  
Bunny chuckles as he watches her leave. Jack just rubs his sore ear, and frowns.

 

“She’s stronger than she looks…” He mutters.

 

Bunny barks out a laugh and nods. “That’s a Mulier Fortis for ya. She takes injured people very seriously. Also teeth, but that’s a completely different subject.”   
  
Jack raises an eyebrow. “A muller what now?”

 

Bunny just shakes his head and motions for Jack to go sit back down on the bench. “Mulier Fortis. It means Warrior Woman in the old language. They are a race of woman that live in the south and are females only. They are very skilled and fierce. Don’t make em mad, as you can see. Tooth could’ve ripped off your ear if she wanted to.”

  
Jack frowns and heads for the bench to once again take a seat as he rubs his ear muttering, “I’d like to keep my ear, thanks…”

 

Bunny just laughs and shakes his head. “She broke my arm once, when I first came here. We were hand to hand sparring and I teased her about her height. She took me by surprise and threw me across the room. I’d rather not go into detail about how much that hurt.”  
  
Jack gapes at him, having a hard time imagining tiny Tooth throwing big, muscular Bunny across the room. “Holy shit, I’d pay to see that.”

 

Bunny scowls and narrows his eyes at Jack. “No, ya don’t. Now, pay attention, I ain’t showing you this twice.”

 

Jack just grins at him and relaxes. He watches Bunny twirl his staff around for a bit, paying attention to the way his muscles moved under his sleeveless shirt and how that slit in his kilt revealed a bit of his leg, showing off his tribal tattoos there. Jack feels his face flush in a blush when his mind begins to wander into the metaphorical gutter as he imagined his hands wandering over those arms, wrapping his legs around Bunny’s waist- WHOA.

  
Jack’s imagination screeches to a halt when he realizes just what he’s thinking about. He wasn’t even paying attention to Bunny’s staff demonstration anymore.   
  
When Bunny speaks to him he blinks, the blush still creeping over his cheeks. “Wait what?”

  
Bunny raises an eyebrow at him and rolls his eyes. “I said, what did you think? You learn anything?”

 

Jack swallows hard and nods. “Y-yeah, a bit.”

 

Bunny sighs and walks over, handing him his staff. “When you are all healed up, I’ll show ya how to use it better.”

 

Jack takes his staff and looks down, attempting to not make eye contact with him. “Y-yeah, that sounds good, thanks!”

 

And with that, he attempts to shove past Bunny to the door.  
  
“Whoa, whoa, hey! Where ya goin?” Bunny grabs Jack’s hand, which causes him to blush even harder. “Thought you wanted to watch me?”

 

Jack stutters, still not looking at Bunny. “I-I did, but uh…suddenly feeling kind of tired. I was just going to go back up to the medical ward and get some rest.”

 

Bunny raises an eyebrow at that. “Uh, alright then mate.” He releases Jack’s hand and crosses his arms. “You want me to go with you?”

 

Jack waves him off as he heads towards the door, speaking quickly and stepping up his pace as he headed for the door. “No, it’s ok, thanks!”

                         

* * *

 

Aster watches Jack leave in a hurry and frowns. Something seemed off, but he wasn’t going to push it. Maybe Jack just overdid it and needed to rest. He turns back to Phil, who was on the other side of the room trying to pull out a spear embedded in the wall.

 

“Oi, Phil! You up for a little hand to hand?” Phil replies with a pained groan.

 

He knew it was his turn to be thrown across the room by Aster.

 

* * *

  
  
Tooth had been in Jack’s recovery room, dropping off some books for him to read when Jack entered the room. He sets his staff down on the bed and flops face first into his pillows, groaning. Tooth raises an eyebrow at him and sits down on the edge of his bed.

“You ok Jack? Are you hurt? Did Bunny make you spar with him? I swear to the gods if he did I’ll throw him out the window in North’s office.”

Jack chuckles and rolls over on his back. “No, it’s fine. I was just….. Distracted.”

  
“Distracted? By what?”Jack groans again and let’s his face flop back onto the bed to mutter out, “Nevermind, forget I said anything. I’m just going to lay here and question my life choices.”

 

Tooth laughs softly and rubs his back. “Jack, you don’t even remember your past. How can you regret your life choices if you don’t even remember them?”

 

Jack just made a frustrated noise in response before speaking up. “Apparently I’m making new ones.”

 

Tooth laughs and pats his shoulder. “Come on Jack, talk to me. You can tell me anything, that’s what I’m here for.”

 

Jack turns his head to grin at her. “I dunno, earlier you were practically ripping my ear off.”

 

Tooth just huffs at him and crosses her arms. “I was being gentle! Besides I was worried! You better not do that again or next time I’m tying you down to this bed.”

 

Jack just laughs and rolls onto his back before sitting up. Tooth’s expression turns serious, placing her hand on his shoulder.

 

“Come on, talk.”  She presses gently.  
  
He sighs and rubs his face. “Well, I was having…thoughts…while Bunny was using my staff…” His cheeks begin to pinken a bit, and he shifts nervously. “Like, the kind of thoughts that someone shouldn’t think about a friend…”

 

Tooth gapes at Jack for a moment before quickly getting off the bed and pointing a finger at Jack.  “You like Bunny!”

 

Jack squeaks and hisses at her. “Tooth! Keep your voice down please!”

 

Tooth just ignores him and takes his hands in hers. “Oh my goodness!  You have to tell him, he’ll-”

  
Jack’s face pales more than it already was. “NO! Please, don’t tell him! I…I don’t want him to get mad at me…”

 

Tooth’s makes a soft noise at the hurt expression on Jack’s face and she sits back down next to Jack, wrapping her arm around his shoulders in an attempt to comfort Jack.  
  
“Alright, then you can tell him when you want to. But, you are going to have to tell him eventually you know. You can’t keep it a secret forever.”

 

Jack sighs and hangs his head, “Yeah, I know…I just…need to have the time to think about it…”

 

Tooth smiles and hugs him before pulling back. “Alright then, you need to lie down. I’ll go get you some dinner and then you can go to sleep, have dreams of Bunny.”

 

She grins and wiggles her eyebrows at him, which causes him to blush even darker and hide his face in his hands. “OH my GODS Tooth!”

 

She just cackles and gets off the bed. “Alright, enough teasing. Lie down, I’ll be back with your supper later.”

 

She winks at him before leaving the room. Jack sighs and slips under the covers, laying there for a moment before his mind begins to wander and think things up about Aster again. He groans and covers his face with a pillow.

 

“This is going to get awkward….” He mumbles under the pillow.

 

* * *

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the Castle that Aster is talking about that is covered in ice, looks something like this: http://imgick.mlive.com/home/mlive-media/pgmain/img/kalamazoogazette/photo/2014/01/lighthouse3bigjpg-3f2c1afe105034d5.jpg  
> But the castle is obviously a LOT bigger.  
> Here's a playlist I made for Winterhaven that includes all the music that inspired me to write this story:  
> http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/Winter+Haven/94551408  
> And here's some awesome art by Frostedpaws.tumblr.com  
> http://moonlit-cravings.tumblr.com/post/75319877921/frostedpaws-gall-freaking-darn-it-i-messed-up  
> http://moonlit-cravings.tumblr.com/post/73787247530/frostedpaws-commission-work-done-for  
> Special thanks to cheeky and Holly for helping me edit, seriously, you guys are the best thanks so much!


	4. Friendship to Last

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for the delay! I've had a lot of stuff happening in the past year, but now I'm HOPEFULLY going to be on track in updating.  
> I started a new job five months ago, and I'm planning on moving in a couple days, so things have been crazy. Thanks for waiting!

He’s in intense pain.   
He’s aware that he’s running, dragging someone behind him.   
He’s bleeding heavily; he can feel the sticky warmth of his blood seeping onto his fingers as he holds his hand over the wound.   
They aren’t going to make it.   
Someone is yelling something but he can’t hear them.    
The ice is cracking around them as they make a break for the other side.   
Just as they are about to make it, the cracks reach them.   
In a last ditch effort, he grips her hand and uses his momentum to toss her to the other side.   
She screams his name as the ice breaks all around him and he plunges into the icy waters.   
At least she’s safe.   
He accepts his face as the icy cold water fill his lungs, he can’t breathe, it burns.

 

* * *

 

Jack cries out as he sits up in bed, coughing and breathing heavily.   
It takes him a moment to remember where he was, before calming his breathing and falling back onto his pillow.   
  
“What kind of dream was that?” he mutters, rubbing his face. Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t really remember much…. All he could remember being in pain and lots of screaming.   
  


He sighs and sits back up rubbing the sleep from his eyes a bit before freezing in shock.   
  


The window to the far side of the room was open a crack, and the wind was howling loudly outside. The room was freezing cold, and his blankets had a thin layer of frost on them, going down all the way off the bed to the floor and up the walls. He stares in awe for a moment before he hears a knock at the door and Tooth call from the other side.   
  
“Jack? Are you awake?”   
  
He curses softly and jumps out of bed. “I uh…. Can you give me a sec? I’m uh…. Naked.”   
  
Tooth laughs on the other side and says something about she’s seen it but doesn’t attempt to enter the room.   
  
Jack runs over to the window and closes it before he begins to scrape off the frost from the floor and bed posts. He doesn’t have to do much, as most of it has already started to melt, leaving small puddles on the ground for him to wipe up.    
He uses a towel that was by the side of his bed in a wash bin and wrings it out before wiping down all the water from the floor. When he’s done, he puts the cloth back and goes to the door to let Tooth in.   
He smiles bashfully at her. She just laughs softly and steps past him into the room.

 

“Did you sleep ok?” she asks as she puts down her medical bag and motions for Jack to sit down.   
  
“Yeah, I slept alright I guess…” he lies.

 

She raises an eyebrow at him, before shrugging and motioning for Jack to take his shirt off. “Alright well, depending on how your wound looks, You’ll probably be able to get discharged from the medical ward and be assigned your own room in the living quarters.”   
  
“My own room? So… you guys are letting me stay?” 

 

Tooth laughs softly at that. “Of course we are Jack! What, did you think we’d toss you back outside into the Northern Wilderness after you were done healing? You wouldn’t last a day out there! You are more than welcome to stay here. I’m sure North will find something for you to do. You’re pretty good with the kids, maybe he’ll give you a job watching over them. The yeti do a pretty decent job, but even they can only do so much.”   
  


She finishes unwrapping his bandages and makes a happy noise.   
  
“Just as I thought! You’re almost healed! And in three days, unbelievable! It’s definitely your magic, it’s probably been helping you heal.”   
  
Jack nods at that and sighs in frustration. “Yeah, that’s great and all, but how do I even figure out what kind of magic I have? You guys said that it’s apparently supposed to be some sort of amazingly rare magic, but I honestly don’t know how I’m supposed to figure out what it’s supposed to be, let alone the magic that I was born with….”   
  


Tooth listens to Jack for a moment before placing a reassuring hand on Jack’s shoulder.   
  
“Give it time Jack, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. You really can’t force it; it’s something you have to figure out on your own. I can tell you that the magic you were born with is going to be a LOT easier to figure out than your inheritance magic. Just don’t think about it too much, let it happen naturally.”   
  
Jack grunts, but nods. Tooth gives him a smile before pulling out some fresh bandages and beginning to rewrap Jack’s wound. “This is probably going to be the last time I have to do this. I’ll have the yeti start preparing a room for you in the living quarters, and move your things there.” She finishes up and checks her work before standing and packing her things.   
  
“And I think you’re well enough to join us for breakfast if you want. Bunny will be there….”   
  
Jack scowls at Tooth and rolls his eyes. “Please can we NOT bring that up? I’ve got enough to deal with. Don’t need to add one-sided attraction to it.” She chuckles softly at his despair and hands him a clean shirt, which he pulls on as he stands up. “But breakfast does sound good though. Lead the way.”   
  
Tooth leads him out of the room and waits as he grabs his staff from where it was leaning against the wall next to the door. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt like he shouldn’t part with it. He decides to not dwell on it and follows Tooth to the dining hall.

* * *

Jack was NOT drooling.   
  
Ok, maybe he was a little bit. But after being on a strict light diet that consisted of watery soup and plain oatmeal for the past few days, he had been really hungering for something more filling.   
  
Breakfast was being served in a large dining room, with a table that seated about fifteen people comfortably, and another table against the wall that was piled high with all sorts of different kinds of food.

  
There were tarts made with meat and veggies, others with fruit, hot grilled sausages, a large plate of eggs, toast, crispy bacon, muffins, flaky pastries filled with fruit jellies and creamy custards. There were also griddle cakes, waffles, roasted potatoes, fresh fruit, eggy bread, and, to Jack’s dismay, even oatmeal.   
  
Tooth laughs at Jack’s slack jaw as he stares at the food. “You okay there Jack?”   
  
He just nods, unsure what else to say. “I may not have my memories but I know for a fact that this is the most food I have ever seen.”   
  
Tooth laughs again and pats his shoulder. “Yeah well, just wait 'til dinner. There’s a LOT more. We try to keep a variety because most of the kids are really picky, plus Bunny is kind of a vegetarian and North likes his meat.”    
  
At that moment, the kids all come rushing in, with North and Bunny right behind them, who was carrying a sleepy-looking Sophie. Tooth ‘aws’ at the two of them and comes up to his side to coo at her. “Did she sneak into your bed again last night?”   
  
Bunny chuckles softly and nods, stroking Sophie’s hair. “Yeah, I was out like a light, didn’t even hear her come in….” Sophie just responds by tightening her grip around Bunny’s neck and yawning.   
  
“Hey Soph, you want some breakie?” He asks softly, bouncing her lightly. She giggles softly and nods. “Alright, lets go pick out what you want, yeah?”   
  
He carries her over to the table and begins to put food on a plate for Sophie, which ends up being mostly pastries and fruit tarts, but he puts some healthy things on it as well for fear of Tooth’s wrath. He sits her down in her seat before going back to get his own food. The kids and North were already having at the table as well, piling their plates with their favorite foods. Tooth gasps as she sees that it mostly consisted of pastries and sweet bread. 

 

“Kids, you need fruits and vegetables too!” 

 

She hurries over to them to help them pick out healthy foods as well, and Jack trails behind her, chuckling softly as he rests his staff next to the doorway. He grabs a plate for himself and begins to pile food on his plate as well. grabbing almost one of everything, but steering clear of the oatmeal. Tooth watches him for a moment before tutting and shaking her head. 

 

“Jack, I know I said you could have more solid foods now, but take it easy, ok? Don’t eat too much….”   
  


Jack grumbles as well as the kids chuckle at him. “Yeah, yeah…” he mutters before taking his plate over to the table and begins to dig in.   


* * *

  
Aster stands awkwardly with his plate, trying to get the courage to go sit next to Jack. He had left the gym in a rush the day before and it had made him really worried. He feels someone nudge him in the side and he looks down to see Tooth smirking up at him.   
  
“So, you going to go sit next to Jack?” Aster could literally hear the pure GLEE in her voice and it made him want to dump his bowl of oatmeal on her head.   
  
“Don’t look at me like that it’s creeping me out.” He rolls his eyes and looks back over at Jack, who was happily chowing down on his food.   
  
“Bunny, just go sit down next to him. He’s so involved in his food I highly doubt he’ll even notice you’re there unless you say something to him.”   
  
Aster sighs again and scowls. “Alright, fine.”   
  
He takes his plate over to the vacant seat next to jack and cautiously sits down.   
  
“Hey Jack. Enjoying your breakie?”   
  
Jack jumps and nods meekly. “Uh, yeah, it’s really good. First real food I’ve had since I woke up.” 

Aster nods in understanding before starting to eat his food. They sit there quietly, eating their food while the kids all talk and eat, making lots of ruckus while Tooth tries to get them to eat the fruit and veggies she put on their plates.   
  
After a few moments, Aster puts his fork down and awkwardly turns to Jack.   
  


“So um….. Ya kinda left in a hurry yesterday mate. Didn’t get to show you some of my fancier moves.”   
  
Jack freezes mid bite and looks over at Aster sheepishly.

  
“Yeah, I uh… I was fine. Just a bit uh…. tired….” With that he goes back to stuffing food in his mouth. Aster chuckles softly to himself. Well, he supposed Jack probably hadn’t eaten any real food besides soup and oatmeal since he got here.   
  
He goes back to eating his food, unaware of the conversations going on around him. He’s vaguely aware that North was talking to Jack about something. He’s brought back to reality when North starts howling with laughter and Jack is laughing water out of his nose.   
  
“N-no way! Bunny really did that?!”   
  
“DA, HE DID!!!!”   
  
This causes Aster’s face to flush and he glares at North. “OI! What are ya tellin him?!”

 

North just chuckles and waves a hand at Aster.

  
“Ah, is nothing to be TOO ashamed of Bunny. You looked good in pink.”   
  
He bursts into laughter again and all Aster can do is cross his arms and slink down in his seat.   
  
“I have a faulty paint bomb one time and I never hear the end of it….”   
  
Jack snorts and lightly nudges him in the side with his elbow. “Cheer up Cottontail, I’m just teasing you, no need to get your tail in a twist.”   
  
Aster scowls again and just slinks down even further into his chair.   
  
This was going to be a long winter.

 

 

* * *

 

Tooth smiles fondly at Bunny and Jack from across the table as they talk and interact with each other. She can’t quite hear what they are saying, but she was glad that they were at least relaxing around each other. 

 

Jack was getting a kick out of occasionally poking fun at Bunny, who would then get red in the face and start stuttering, only to just make Jack laugh at him even harder.

  
Tooth grins and decides then that she needs to help these two idiots tell each other how they really feel about the other. But she knew she couldn’t push it too soon, or force them on each other. They were going to have to get to know each other first. 

 

She smirks and sits back in her chair, concocting a plan in her head already.

 

* * *

  
Jack grins as Bunny scowls at him for cracking another joke at his expense.   
  


He had been a little tense when Bunny had first sat down next to him, but now he was really enjoying messing with him, and just getting to know him. He decided that he was really adorable when his face got really red and when he attempted to sit lower in his chair as if to make himself smaller.   
  
After they finish breakfast, Bunny offers to show Jack some more moves in the gym, since he had left early the day before. Jack debates the idea for a moment, and then decides to go. He had nothing to lose, and watching Bunny workout was a great way to pass the time.   
  
After the yeti come and clear out the dining hall Jack follows Aster to the gym. Aster excuses himself for a moment to change and when he comes back, he’s got a dark grey form fitting leather vest on. It’s got a hood lined with fur or something similar around the edges and designs going up the sides that Jack doesn’t quite understand. He’s also still wearing his kilt, but he’s got a pair of leather leggings under it. He’s also still barefooted, and Jack is NOT ogling how cute his toes are.   
  
“Right, so lets get on with it yeah?” Jack is jerked out of his daze and nods.   
  


“Oh yeah right sorry.” He moves to go sit down on the chairs like he did yesterday when Bunny shakes his head.   
  


“Oi, and just what do you think you’re doin?”   
  


“I-I thought I was going to watch you….”   
  


“Well, Tooth told me that your wounds are pretty much healed, which means-” He grabs a staff from the weapons shelf and twirls it around a bit before pointing it at Jack. “You’re ace for a sparring lesson.”   
  


Jack stares at Aster dumbly for a moment before what he said finally registers in his head.   
  


“W-wait, you want me to fight you?! But you’ll kick my ass!”   
  


Bunny just laughs as he rests the staff on his shoulder. “That’s the point of sparring mate. You gotta get knocked around a  bit to learn. Maybe a few whacks in the head will jog your memory, eh?”   
  
Bunny has got this sort of evil glint in his eyes, and Jack is already dreading this.   
  


“Alright but please go easy on me, I literally have NO idea what I’m doing.”

 

* * *

Alright, so Aster MAY not have gone as easy on Jack as he could have. But he had to admit, he was enjoying tossing Jack around the room, literally a few times. They ended up stopping because Jack smacks himself in the face with his staff and wound up with a bloody nose.

 

Aster ends up taking Jack to Tooth, only to get scolded for letting Jack hurt himself. They decide call it a day after that and when Jack’s nose finally stops bleeding, he lets him follow him back to him room/office to make up for beating him up.

  
When he leads him into his room, Jack stares in awe at all the weapons and trinkets that are all over the walls. The desk is lined with books and loose pages that are covered in doodles and notes. There’s also a workbench that has a chemistry set on it, and some large brightly-colored eggs.   
  


Aster just chuckles at Jack’s reaction and sits down at the edge of his bed.   
  


“Feel free to look around, but don’t touch anything.”   
  


Jack nods and starts to wander around the room, taking everything in.   
  


All the weapons on the wall are mostly hand carved boomerangs, which seemed to have been hand carved. “Did those myself. A few are a bit busted though, so they are retired and mostly for decoration.” 

 

Jack stares at them for a while, probably looking at all the fine details before moving onto the desk. It has papers scattered all over it, with doodles and rough sketches all over them.    
  


“Did you draw these?” Jack asks quietly, going to move the pages so he can see the ones underneath. 

 

“Uh, yeah, I usually just doodle to get ideas or keep myself distracted-”   
  
Aster stops talking when Jack finds a page that is covered in sketches of himself, and his cheeks flush a bit.

  
“You drew me?”   
  


Aster nods a bit sheepishly. “Yeah, I tend to use people around me as models. I’ve got a whole sketch book that’s filled with just the kids from when I watch them, it helps me relax.”   
  


Jack stares at the sketches for a while before putting them down. “They’re really good,” he mutters softly before looking at a few more sketches on the desk.

  
Aster just shrugs. “Just takes a lot of practice I guess.”   
  


Jack nods and puts the drawings back down before moving onto the desk with all the chemistry equipment on it.   
  


“So, what’s all this then?” Jack asks with a smirk.   
  


“Just some stuff.” Aster says standing up to join Jack. “Egg bombs mostly but have lately been coming up with some new ideas with North to help preserve food better, and to keep the plants in the Warren healthy.”   
  


Jack goes to touch one of the eggs and Aster yelps, grabbing his hand.   
  


“Aaah, I wouldn’t touch that if I were you. These one’s aren’t stable yet, could very much explode in your face.”

 

Jack’s eyes widen and he pulls his hand back.   
  


“I’m going to guess you know from experience?” Jack asks, grinning a bit.   
  


Aster just scowls and rolls his eyes.   
  


“I was trying out a new pressure for the eggs, and my calculations were a bit off. Exploded in my face, and all over my room. Took weeks to get the pink off everything.”   
  


Jack laughs at the idea of Aster covered in pink egg bomb powder and stumbling out of his room with a cloud behind him.   
  


Aster watches Jack laugh fondly, before coughing and pulling Jack away from the table. “Yeah yeah, laugh all you want you drongo. I got enough of it from the kids and the yeti.” 

 

Jack wipes a tear from his eye and nods. “Right, sorry. Just a really amusing mental image.”   
  


“The colors are to help me detect an enemy better. They can’t hide if they’re covered in paint and leaving a trail. Also, it’s not pleasant to have one of those explode in your face.” 

 

“So, you basically couldn’t hide for a while either then huh?” Jack teases with a smirk. Aster just grumbles something before leading Jack out of his room and shutting the door behind them.   
  
“Alright, well let’s go see the kids then, yeah? Your new duty is most likely going to be watching them, since I’m usually too busy, and the yeti aren’t exactly the best babysitters in the world.”   
  
“Yeah, I think I’d like that.” Jack says with a soft chuckle. The kids seemed to like him a lot, which he was glad about. He had this odd feeling when he was around them, nostalgia maybe? What he supposed an older sibling would have for younger ones.

  
When he expresses this thought to Aster, he shrugs.  “Maybe you had, or, HAVE younger siblings.” He says, correcting himself quickly. Jack nods, and decides to not dwell on it too much.   
  
When they reach the nursery, the kids all come at Jack at once, talking excitedly, and dragging him off to show him stuff they had been working on. He hadn’t noticed before, but besides the usual toys and such that one would see in a normal nursery, there were also lots of other things for the kids. A climbing wall, with a huge pit filled with soft looking blocks, most likely to cushion their fall, an area for drawing and painting, likely used by Sophie the most, a miniature library full of books just for the kids, and in the center of it all was a fort of sorts, complete with crawling tunnels, slides, and even a pulley system to get things up and down each floor of the fort. 

 

Jack notices Aster getting dragged off by Sophie, who is most likely going to show him more drawings, and he grins fondly at them. Aster seems to have a sort of soft spot for Sophie, and Jack thought it was adorable.    
  
Jack ends up playing with the kids all day, but Aster leaves before he does, something about some stuff he had to work on, much to Sophie’s displeasure. She comes around though, and joins in with the other kids in playing with Jack. They take a break for lunch, sandwiches, soup and some freshly squeezed juice, which Tooth brings for them all, before it’s straight back to playing.    
  
When evening rolls around, everyone joins back together in the dining hall again for another epic meal. Jack doesn’t realize that Aster is watching him as he piles his plate high with meat, veggies, and a couple of soft, warm bread rolls. He takes a seat next to him, and he continues to watch jack as he eats. Aster’s plate is filled with mostly vegetables and bread, and Jack remembers that Tooth said he was a vegetarian. When he asks, Aster just chuckles.   
  


“I do eat it, it’s just only every once in a while. It’s ah, part of my upbringing. And also somewhat of a personal choice.” 

Jack decides that answer is good enough for him and decides to keep eating.   
  
Dinner passes, and as the yeti are cleaning up, Jack and Aster start talking between themselves, Tooth occasionally shooting them knowing looks. After they finish dessert, which consists of tea, and white cakes filled with fruit jam and frosted with a light icing, Tooth shows Jack where the washroom is, which ends up being a massive room with stone walls that lead all the way to a domed ceiling, and smooth tiled floors. There’s a huge in-ground tub in the center of the room, filled with steaming hot water, and off to the side are stalls. After stripping down and placing his clothes in one of the cubbies by the door, he goes over to inspect the stalls to figure out how they work.    
  
After inspecting them, he realizes that he’s supposed to wash himself here in the stalls first, then soak in the large tub. He finds that a bar of soap and a rag is already in the stall, and he gets to work cleaning himself up. After he rinses off, he goes into the tub, and sinks in sighing softly. The warmth of the water was a bit much for him but it still felt nice to sit there and just relax. His silence is broken however when the yells and cheers of Jamie and the other boys come running into the room naked and make a beeline for the tub. Jack jolts up, yelping as they all jump in, making a big splash.   
  


“Oi, you’re supposed to wash off first guys!”   
  
Jack feels his face heat up when he hears Aster’s voice, and looks over to see said man already stripping down. He slips a bit into the water to attempt to hide his face as he looks away.   
  
“Aw, come on Bunny! Why can’t we just wash in here?” Jamie asks before he’s dunked under the water by one of the twins. Aster rolls his eyes and makes a motion for them to get out, causing them all to groan and get out of the tub to go wash properly. After they are all finished washing up, under Aster’s strict watch, they jump back into the tub again.   
  
Aster follows them a bit slower, getting in next to Jack, who keeps his gaze locked onto a weird pattern on the stone walls.   
  


“Hey, you feeling alright Jackie? Water’s not too hot for ya, is it? You’re face is a bit red.”   
  


Jack almost jumps at the sound of Aster’s voice next to him and shakes his head. “N-no, it’s fine. Just you know, a bit tired is all.”   
  
Aster just chuckles as he leans back, propping his arms up on the sides of the tub.   
  


“Alright then. Just don’t soak for too long. Don’t want ya passing out in the water.”   
  
Jack nods quickly, keeping his gaze mostly averted, so as not to be caught oogling. The only noise in the bath house is the boys rough housing and dunking each other in the water. He doesn’t notice that when he looks away, Aster occasionally sneaks a few peeks at him as well. After a while of silence between the two of them, Aster shifts towards him. 

“So, what do you think of the workshop so far?” Jack shrugs, still 

 

keeping his gaze averted. “It’s pretty cool, never really seen anything like it. Well, I’ve PROBABLY never seen anything like it. Who knows, maybe I could have lived in a palace for all I know and maybe it’s a hundred times cooler than this.” 

 

Aster chuckles softly and starts to respond when one of the bathing buckets comes flying and hits him right in the face. Jack stares at Aster in shock as the bath house fills with a dead silence, awaiting to see his reaction. After a moment, Aster’s nose begins to bleed, and all hell breaks loose.

  
“It was Claude’s fault!” Jamie says quickly, the first to break the deadly silence.   
  


“No it wasn’t! You threw it!”   
  


“Yeah, but it was an accident! You weren’t supposed to duck!”   
  


“Oh, so I was SUPPOSED to let it hit me?!”   
  


“Oh, you boys better start runnin', if ya know what’s good for ya,” Aster says with a growl, standing up. His tone causes a shiver to run up Jack’s spine, and he can’t help but want to hear Aster growling like that in his ear he did things to him.   
  
He’s brought out of his day dream as the boys all yelp and start running out of the pool as Aster chases after them. Jack decides to use the chaos as a cover to slip out of the tub; it would be awkward for them to see his little, ah, problem. He dries off and dresses into a clean change of clothes quickly before slipping out of the bathhouse. He turns to go down the hall to his room when he sees Tooth coming down the hall with Tina, Sophie, Arya, and Pippa.   
  
“Hey Jack, are the boys all done washing up yet? It’s almost our turn.”   
  


Jack laughs softly, and runs the back of his head. “You might want to wait a bit longer, it’s a bit chaotic in there right now.” 

And at that moment, there are howls and yelling coming from the door of the boys as they are most likely being chased down by Aster. Tooth sighs and rubs the bridge of her nose. “Do I even WANT to know what happened?”   
  
“Ah, one of the boys threw a bucket and hit Aster in the face with it. You’d think with his reflexes, he’d have been able to stop it,” Jack says with a chuckle.   
  
Tooth groans and says something under her breath before turning to Sophie and Tina.   
  


“Well girls, it looks like we’re going to have to wait a bit longer to take our bath. The boys are being stupid. Again.”   
  
Sophie and Tina giggle, while Arya and Pippa just roll their eyes.   
  


“Boys are stupid,” Arya grumbles, crossing her arms. Pippa nods in agreement and Jack can’t help but laugh. 

 

“Well, I’m going to head off to bed. Good luck with the bath, girls.” He waves to them and turns to head to his room before Sophie clings to his legs.

  
“Night night Jack,” she coos, squeezing his legs tighter. Jack smiles fondly at her before bending down to give her a proper hug. When he’s got her separated from his legs, he heads down the hall to his room.    
  
He closes the door behind him, and tosses his dirty clothes onto the floor before flopping down onto his bed.   
  


He lays there for a while, listening to the chattering of Aster and Tooth arguing down the hall in front of the bathhouse, and then after a while, it’s quiet again, and he slips into a deep sleep.

 

* * *

  
  
Aster storms out of the bathhouse with one of the twins under his arm, and Jamie’s ear in his other hand. The others follow him out, scared to have to face his wrath again.   
  


The girls are waiting outside, giggling at the spectacle.   
  


“You guys have fun in there?” Tooth asks, snorting at Aster’s bloody nose and already bruising cheek.   
  


“Yeah, laugh it up all ya want. The bath is yours.” He lets the boys go, who immediately take off to their rooms.   
  


“Ya better run!” he growls after them, which gets another laugh out of the girls.   
  


Once the boys are out of sight, Aster turns to face Tooth again. “So, uh…. did ya happen to see Jack come out? I think he slipped out in the commotion. Was gunna try to get him to help me wrangle up the boys, but he wasn’t there anymore.”   
  
“He went to bed, said he was getting tired. I hope he didn’t work himself up too much today,” Tooth says with a worried look. 

 

Aster frowns at that, remembering how he had been tossing him around earlier in the training room. “Yeah, maybe it’s best he rests for now. I think I’m gonna hit the hay as well.” 

 

Sophie chooses that moment to cling to Aster’s legs as well, and giggles. “Night night bunny.” 

 

He laughs and pries her off his legs before lifting her up. “Night Soph. Go get squeaky clean alright? See ya in the morning.” 

 

He presses a kiss to her forehead before placing her back on the ground and heading off to his room.   


* * *

He could feel the blade slide out of him as he was tossed aside, unable to move as she screamed. His world was going foggy as his blood poured out of his wound.    
  


“ I’m going to devour you and your fears while he watches, and there’s nothing he can do about it.”   
  


She opens her mouth to scream and everything goes black.

 

* * *

Jack sits up in alarm, gasping for air and clutching his stomach.   
  


“Wha-” 

 

He manages to pry his hands away from his body to stare at them. He’s shaking, and he looks up to see frost had gathered on his sheets again, but his room had no window, so it couldn’t have come from outside. He slowly moves his hand, reaching down carefully to touch the frost. As his hand touches the sheet, even more frost blooms out from under his fingers onto the sheets and he yelps, jumping up from the bed and tossing the sheets off him. When his feet touch the floor, even more frost blooms out from under him.   
  
He watches it spread across the wooden floor in awe, and wonders how to get it to stop. At that moment,  a loud buzzing alarm starts to ring out in the hall and it breaks him out of his thoughts on the frost.   
  


Jack jumps from the noise, forgetting about the frost and runs out into the hall, where Tooth and Bunny are already running past him down the hall.   
  


“H-hey, what’s going on?”    
  


Tooth pauses, and goes back to grab his arm, dragging him along. “Good, you’re awake. Come with us.”   
  


“Wait what? Where are we going? What’s with the alarm?!”   
  


“We’ll explain when we get to the garage,” Tooth says, glancing over at Bunny. Jack looks up at him too, and sees Aster has a serious look set on  his face. Jack and Tooth are still in their sleepwear, but Aster is dressed for the weather outside. He’s wearing a thick, dark longsleeved shirt that covers his neck, and a pair of thick pants as well. Jack notices he’s even wearing boots, which seem to be made for extremely high temperatures.   
  


“Bunny…..” Jack says softly, a bit worried and really confused. “W-what’s going on?”   
  
Aster doesn’t falter in his long strides as they make their way to their destination.   
  


“The wind has calmed,” he says, which only confuses Jack even further. 

 

“I-I… what? The wind? I don’t….”   
  


Tooth sighs as quickens her pace to keep up with Aster. “The winds in the Northern mountains have calmed. The workshop sits on this border, ok? To the north of us are mountains we have hardly traveled. It’s filled with beasts and monsters that protect the lands from humans. There are wolves the size of buildings and bears so big they could eat you in one bite. It’s an… unpleasant place. It’s also protected by the wind. It’s so strong, that any human that tries to go out into is frozen or blown away, depending on the time of year. We’ve been trying to study this land, in hopes of finding out it’s mysteries. There’s a myth that says that there was once a tribe of people that lived there, but it’s been so long, no one really knows if they ever actually existed. But North senses a LOT of magic up there, so, naturally we’re incredibly curious. Every once in a while though, the winds calm enough for us to go out there, but not all of us can go. North has to be here to keep the barrier up, and I am here to be ready for medical emergencies, so that leaves Bunny. He’s going to take a team of yeti north and try to go as far as they can, before the wind lapses and it continues again.”

  
“W-what happens if they don’t make it back in time before the wind starts up again?” Jack asks, already knowing part of the answer.   
  


“Then we’re stuck out there,” Aster says grimly, before they finally reach a large wooden door being guarded by a yeti. He opens it up for them, and they enter a room that’s full of yeti in chaos preparing for the trip. Tooth lets go of Jack to go help some yeti pack up medical and food supplies, while Aster goes to where North is, who gives him some more clothes to protect him from the cold. 

 

“These are even more waterproof than last ones. Also, I made backpacks, can carry up to two hundred pounds worth of supplies inside, will hardly feel heavier than a few pounds, and won’t get any bigger than when it’s empty. New technique I’ve been working on, less bags, less to carry, yes?”

  
Aster takes the bag and examines it before nodding. “That’s handy North. So, what about your snowglobes? How have they been coming along?”   
  


North shrugs sheepishly. “Ah, those are not quite ready yet. Need a bit of tweaking. maybe next trip, ya?”   
  


Jack approaches them quietly, watching them talk.   
  


“So, uh….. How long are you going to be gone for?” He asks quietly.   
  


Aster turns his attention back to jack and smiles fondly. “A month, at the most, a couple days at least. Who knows? The wind is unpredictable. It never stays calm for the same amount of time each time. The only warning we get when it starts up again is the howling. The wolves start to howl when the wind starts to pick back up again. We have to use that time to either try to make it back or find shelter and wait till it stops again.” He chuckles softly at Jack’s look of worry and puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry, we’ll be alright, we do this all the time.” 

 

He gives Jack one final smile before he goes back to getting ready. North takes the bag from him to hand it to a yeti, who begins to fill it with lots of gear and equipment. Jack watches in fascination as he shoves an entire tent inside it, and the bag doesn’t seem to get any bigger.   
  


“Alright boys, you ready to go? Wanna get a head start before the wolves get our scent,” Aster says, attempting to suppress a shudder.   
  


A few yeti cheer in response, and then the wall to the left starts to open outwards. Jack realizes it wasn’t a wall, but an incredibly large door that led to the outside.When the doors were open completely, Jack could see the vast expanse of the Northern land. In the distance, he could make out some incredibly large shapes that were a bit dark. After staring for a while longer he realizes that it’s the mountains. 

 

“Whoa, they’re huge,” Jack says in disbelief. 

 

He hears a few yeti behind him chuckles, and shoo him out of the way so they could prepare for the departure.All the gear along with a team of seven yeti pile into a large sleigh that Jack hadn’t noticed before and he stares it in fascination. He realizes something seems to be missing from it and turns to North. 

 

“Wait, aren’t you guys going to hook up any animals to it to make it run?”  

 

North laughs as Aster climbs into the front of the sleigh grumbling. 

 

“There is no need for animals my boy. This sleigh is run by magic.”   
  


“Yeah, let’s just try not to push its limits like last time please. I’d like to keep my food in my stomach,” Aster says with a grumble, his face already going queasy.   
  


North just chuckles and wishes them good luck before he takes a few steps back, dragging Jack with him. “Ah, you might want to stand back,” North says, chuckling.   
  


At that moment, there was a loud mechanical whirring, and the sleigh shoots off out of the garage and out into the Northern wilderness. Jack can hear Aster’s screams as the sleigh starts to get further away, and he grins a bit. His grin falls when he realizes he doesn’t know when he’s going to see Aster again, and his mood is dampened. When the large garage doors begin to close, all the remaining yeti and Tooth start helping clean up while Jack just stands there, staring out at the snowy terrain before the door finally shuts all the way. He feels a large hand on his shoulder.and when he looks up, North is giving him a reassuring smile.

  
“Ah, do not worry, they will be fine. They always come back, even if sometimes in pieces.” he leaves the room chuckling, leaving Jack to go back to doing whatever it was he was doing before all this.   
  


It was at that moment Jack sets a goal. He was going to work on his fighting skills and figuring out his magic while Aster was away, so when he came back he could show him everything he had learned. And maybe, just MAYBE, even have the courage to tell him how he felt about him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanna thank Corgi for helping me edit this, thanks so much again!   
> Cupcake is going to be called Arya in this, just to fit the tone of the story.
> 
> Here's a playlist I made for Winterhaven that includes all the music that inspired me to write this story:  
> http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/Winter+Haven/94551408  
> And here's some awesome art by Frostedpaws.tumblr.com  
> http://moonlit-cravings.tumblr.com/post/75319877921/frostedpaws-gall-freaking-darn-it-i-messed-up  
> http://moonlit-cravings.tumblr.com/post/73787247530/frostedpaws-commission-work-done-for  
> 


	5. Existence

Jack yelps as he’s thrown to the ground for the tenth time in the past twenty minutes, and lays there on his back, wheezing and attempting to catch his breath.

 

“Oh come on Jack, you aren’t finished already, are you?” Tooth says in a singsong voice, cracking her knuckles. Jack just grunts back a reply and slowly sits up, wincing. Yep that’s going to bruise.

 

“You know, I can only get thrown around so much. It actually hurts to hit the ground so hard  repeatedly.” 

 

Jack can hear Tooth snicker and he just rolls his eyes at her. It has been almost two weeks since Bunny’s team had left to go explore the Northern Wilderness, and much to everyone else’s surprise, the wind hadn’t started back up yet. North was keeping an incredibly close eye out for them everyday, making sure that if he had to put up the barrier at a moment’s notice, he could.

 

Tooth explained that North leaves the barrier down because, if he put it back up, the others would not be able to find their way back to the Workshop. So far, nothing had stirred, tried to attack, or even tried to get close, though North was incredibly on edge, and so was everyone else. With the barrier down, they were left incredibly exposed, and vulnerable. He didn’t know what kind of creatures lived up in those northern mountains, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out anytime soon. The yeti were all on guard; most of them were taking shifts patrolling the outside to make sure nothing got in.

 

Jack sighs before finally sitting up all the way, rubbing his shoulder that had hit the ground. He had asked Tooth to help him train, teach him how to fight, so when Bunny finally came back, he could actually maybe hold his own against the other and show him what he learned. So far, Tooth was a great teacher, and Jack had learned a lot from her the past two weeks, but he still felt as though something was missing. 

 

He hadn’t been able to figure out his birth magic yet, much less his Inheritance. Tooth had told him to try meditating, as it could help him ‘unlock’ something inside of him if he tried hard enough. He tried it, but he felt like he wasn’t doing it right, sitting still for so long made him antsy, and had given up.

 

He was also still being plagued by nightmares. Every night, it was the same dream, even though he couldn’t remember exactly what happened in it, every morning was the same. Everytime he woke up, he was covered in melting frost, and his bedroom window wide open. He hadn’t gone to Tooth about the nightmares yet, as he was hoping that it would just eventually stop on it’s own, but lately it felt like they were getting worst. They felt more violent each night, he was getting less sleep, and it was affecting his concentration during his sparring matches with Tooth.    
  
He finally stands up and looks over to see Tooth giving him a funny look. “What? Do I have something on my face?” He asks jokingly with a grin, but the grin falls when her frown grows.

 

“Jack, are you ok? You seem, distracted lately.”

 

He just shrugs and shakes his head. “No, I just, haven’t been getting enough sleep, that’s all. Let’s continue.” He adjusts his shirt and starts to take a fighting stance, but Tooth raises a hand.   
  
“Actually, let’s take a quick break. We’ve been going at this for a while, and you look like you could use some water.” She motions to one of the yeti assigned to help out in the training room and he goes off to fetch them some water.

 

Jack frowns, but lowers his stance and nods, following Tooth over to the wooden chairs set against the wall. They take a seat and sit there in silence for a moment before Tooth speaks up.   
  
“You’re worried about Bunny, right?”   
  
The mention of Bunny causes him to blush slightly, and attempting to seem nonchalant about it, he shrugs. “Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

 

Tooth just smirks and sits back against her chair, a knowing look on her face. Jack just gives her a funny look before letting it go and accepting a glass of water from the yeti who had brought them both a glass of water.   
  
They sit there for a little while longer, sipping at their drinks before Tooth decides the break is over and drags him back out onto the floor to throw him around a bit more.

 

* * *

 

Aster scowls at the small fire the yeti had set up and shivers. “Fuckin’ hate the cold,” he grumbles, rubbing his hands together.

 

He was at least thankful for this tent that North had made; it was big enough for all of them to fit inside, plus an opening in the top for the smoke from the fire set up in the middle to vent out. He’s broken out of his glaring contest with the fire when a yeti comes up to him with a small plate of boiled vegetables, luke warm bread and hot tea.

 

His stomach growls at the smell of the food, and he smiles meekly at the yeti offering it to him. “Thanks Bill, smells great.”    
  
Bill nods at him and goes back to handing out food to the rest of the team that’s huddled inside the tent doing work while Aster digs into his food. This trip was harder than usual, it seemed. They had made it to the foot mountain and hadn’t found a proper way to actually climb up the mountain with the sleigh, so they had to ride alongside the foot of the mountain till they found a somewhat decent path up it. Another day or so of traveling would have had them at the furthest they have been, but their food rations were running out, and the whole team was slowly losing energy. He had made the decision a few days ago that they should start heading back, he had a gut feeling that it they tried to go further, they wouldn’t make it. 

 

Thankfully, they would just be cutting about three days off their trip back cutting straight across the Northern Plains, as they had spent most of the trip trying to find an entrance to the mountain. The winds were slowly starting to pick up again, and temperatures were dropping, so they had to move quickly if they wanted to make it back before the winds picked up even more. Even now it was starting to get almost unbearable, below-freezing temperatures and desolate white ground as far as the eye could see. The yeti were getting too tired, and the cold was getting to them, but it was affecting Aster the worst. He envied the yeti and their thick furry coats, he really wasn’t meant for this cold weather. He was born and raised in the Spring country, it was always nice and warm. He really didn’t understand why he was always the one that had to go out and do this.

 

He finishes up his food and sets the plate down on the floor before pulling out a notebook from his bag. He reads over some notes he had taken along the trip about the weather, and what they had seen, before placing it back in his bag and pulling out his sleeping bag.   
  
“Phil! I’m gonna take a quick nap. Wake me up if you need anything.” 

 

Phil grunts in response and Bunny chuckles, slipping into the sleeping bag. He lays awake for a while, wondering what Jack had been up to this entire time he’s been gone before finally drifting off to sleep, Jack’s lopsided grin playing in his mind.

 

He’s awoken a few hours later, much to his dismay, by a yeti shaking him awake and yelling in his face. He grumbles and sits up, rubbing his face in confusion. “Whatsit Bill? Someone let the tent catch on fire again?”   
  
Bill yells something else and flails his arms in the direction of the entrance of the tent, where yeti were running in, grabbing packed up supplies, and running back out with them.   
  
“The hell’s goin on?” Aster growls, quickly getting out of his sleeping bag and shoving it into his bag. “Where’s Phil?!”   
  
Bill points outside and Aster sighs. Of course he would be outside. He quickly puts on his winter boots, ridiculously thick jacket, a scarf, a matching hat and gloves before running outside to find Phil. He doesn’t have to look far, as he’s standing a few feet from the tent, yelling at the other yeti and giving them commands to pack up the sleigh. Bunny approaches him, scowling.    
  
“Oi, Phill! What’s goin on? Why are we packing up?” His yells are muffled through his scarf, and he has to pull his scarf further up his face to protect his nose from the biting cold.   
  
Phil frowns at Bunny and points to his ears, making a gesture for him to listen. Aster makes a face at him, but does as he’s told, pulling down his scarf a bit and listening carefully. At first, he doesn’t hear anything besides the howling of the wind, but after a moment he realizes it’s not just the wind that’s howling, and panic begins to set in.   
  
“Holy shit, a Northern Wolf!” It still sounded pretty far off, but these things were fast, it could catch up to them in no time if they didn’t hurry. “Let’s get going, come on!”   
  
He begins to help the yeti frantically take down the tent and pack up the sleigh. When they finally finish, he makes sure everyone is in the sleigh before they take off at full speed back towards the Workshop. He only hopes they can make it there before the Wolf catches their scent and chases after them.

 

* * *

 

Jack lets out a mock pained gasp and falls to the ground, pretending to writhe in agony.   
  
“Argh, Nooo you got me!” Sophie lets out a giggle off to the side as all the boys cheer in their victory over defeating Jack and pile on top of him. Jack grunts and groans as the girls laugh at them off to the side.   
  
“Guys, that’s enough, you’re going to break Jack,” Pippa says, grinning. She was the oldest kid out of all of them, and usually acted the most mature, but even she was amused by their antics. Arya looks tempted to join in on the fun, but Sophie was sitting beside her, busy messily braiding her short hair.   
  
“She’s right guys, unlike Bunny, I’m not built for getting mobbed like this. And I’m still sore from training with Tooth. See?”   
  
He lifts his shirt to show the array of dark splotches all around his side from where he was kicked, punched and thrown around by Tooth. “Gotta go easy, I’m already getting my butt kicked by Tooth everyday.”   
  
“How’s that going? You learn any awesome moves yet? We’ve see Tooth fight, it’s awesome. She can throw the yeti across the room like they are just one of Sophie’s dolls.”

 

Jamie’s face is bright with excitement, and he strikes an action pose that’s supposed to be similar to Tooth’s but Sophie whines at the mention of throwing her dolls across the room and grabs one off the floor, clutching it to her chest, and glaring at her brother.   
  
Jack just laughs and ruffles the top of his head. “No worries, she’s teaching me some stuff. So was Bunny, before he left. Though Tooth’s style doesn’t really feel right to me, so for now she’s just helping me with reflexes and such so when Bunny gets back, we can go back to training with my staff.”

 

He grabs said staff off the ground and twirls it a bit before letting it rest on his shoulder. “So, what do you guys wanna play next?”

 

Before they can answer, Tooth barges through the doors of the nursery, panting hard.   
  
“Jack, come with me! Hurry, it’s urgent!”   
  
“Whoa wait, what’s going on, is something wrong?”   
  
“Bunny’s back!”   
  
“What, really?!” A grin starts to spread across his face, but when he sees the expression on Tooth’s face, it’s anything but relief. “What happened?”   
  
“Nothing yet, hopefully, but hurry!” She ushers him again and turns to head back down the hall towards the lift. Jack turns to the kids to see the worry all over their faces, and gives them a small grin in reassurance.   
  
“Hey, I’ll be back later with Bunny, alright? Stay here, and be good!” They all grumble in response, Sophie’s the loudest, but they agree.He gives them one more big smile before he runs out after Tooth.

 

* * *

 

Jack and Tooth arrive at the room where Bunny and his team had last departed, to find the doors wide open, and North standing there with a red crystal, looking out onto the vast snowy landscape just outside the doors. Jack looks around but apart from some yeti running around, clearing things out of the way of the door, there was no sign of Bunny’s team.

 

“Ah, Tooth, Jack! Good, we are all here!” He gives them a worried smile, before turning to the open doors. “Bunny’s group should be arriving soon, but there is a very big problem. Here, take a look.” He reaches into his big coat and hands Tooth a spyglass, who takes it carefully and looks out onto the wilderness through it. She’s quiet for a moment, searching  for something, before letting out a startled gasp. 

 

“What, what is it? What’s wrong?” Jack scrunches his eyes up to try and see what Tooth sees, but can’t quite make it out the shapes in all the snow covered landscape.   
  
“They are being chased by Northern Wolf. I was looking out for them through my telescope in the office earlier when I saw them. Called you all as soon as I spotted them, I am hoping they make it past the barrier in time.” He gestures to the red crystal in his hand. “If I cannot raise the barrier in time, it will follow them inside, or they will be trapped outside with it.”   
  
“But if it’s just one Wolf, what’s the big deal? Can’t you guys handle one Wolf?” Jack asks, still squinting trying to make out the shapes approaching them.   
  
“Jack, it’s REALLY not that simple. Northern animals aren’t well, normal. Here, look for yourself.”   
  
She hands him the spyglass, and he looks through it. For a moment he can’t see anything but white. He scans around till he spots the red sleigh, speeding towards them. He sees Bunny and he feels a bit of relief swell up in his chest, but when he looks behind him, it’s crushed. Close behind them is a white Wolf, but it’s probably the biggest Wolf he’s ever seen. It’s quite the beast, it would probably tower over him is he stood next to it, could probably even squish him with just one of it’s paws. It’s teeth are bared as it chases after the sleigh, and Jack can’t help but compare it’s teeth to long, wickedly sharp daggers.

 

“We have to help them!” Jack hands North his spy glass back, but North just shakes his head.    
  
“No, we must wait, it’s too dangerous for us to go out there. As soon as the pass the line where the barrier is, they will be safe. As long as they don’t stop they will make it.”   
  
But Jack can tell that North’s not too sure of what he’s saying, as the Wolf seemed to be catching up to them pretty fast.

 

Jack turns to look out for them, and sees they are a lot closer now, he even doesn’t need the spyglass to see them.   
  
“North…” Tooth’s voice is dripping with fear and worry as she watches them, and Jack understands her fear. They were going to make it, but the Wolf was too close, it would get behind the barrier line before North would have the chance to put it up, and keep it out. Apparently Bunny realizes too, because they all watch in horror as he leaps out of the sleigh to take on the Wolf himself.

 

“That IDIOT!” Tooth practically screams, the color draining from her face. “What the HELL does he think he’s doing?!”   
  


Jack only watched as Bunny keeps the Wolf distracted while the Sleigh crosses into the Workshop’s territory, and hoping that he can get away fast enough.   
  
He can barely hear the scurrying of the other yeti as the sleigh pulls up, and things only get more chaotic. Jack’s barely paying attention to them, as at that moment, Bunny seems to be having a hard time getting away from the Wolf.   
  
“I can’t stand around here anymore, I’m going to help him!” Before anyone can stop him, Jack runs out into the snow covered Northern Plains. He barely feels the snow crunch below his bare feet, or the ice cold wind whipping around him as he races to Bunny’s aid.   
  


He can hear Tooth and North screaming for him to come back, but he ignores them, continuing straight for Bunny and the Wolf.   
  
His need to help Bunny grows as he watches him struggle to fight the giant Wolf in his winter gear. He watches in horror as the Wolf dodges one of Bunny’s wooden boomerangs like it was nothing. It swipes at him, and because of all of his winter gear, Bunny can’t dodge quick enough. The Wolf hits him right in the chest, sending him flying back into the snow.   
  
Jack feels a rush of energy flow through him, and he feels lighter than air as he rushes forward. “Leave him ALONE!” Without thinking, he swings his staff, and as if on command, a concentrated current of icy wind blows into the Wolf, knocking it back away from Bunny. Jack gapes in awe as the Wolf was blown away by the wind, and looks down in shock at his staff.   
  
He doesn’t have much time to dwell on it though as the Wolf shakes off the attack and starts to growl at him before pausing in what seems to be shock. It stares at him, its piercing yellow eyes watching Jack intently, causing him to stiffen but stays on guard as they watch each other for a moment. It

 

‘The one who commands the wind has returned.’

 

Jack blinks in confusion when he hears the voice. “W-what? Did you just-”   
  
“Jack get down!” He’s grabbed roughly by the back of his shirt, and dragged back, only to narrowly be missed by the boomerang Bunny had thrown a little bit ago. The Wolf growls and moves to leap at them, but suddenly there’s a clear red wall separating them from the Wolf, and Jack realizes it’s the barrier. The Wolf howls and paces in front of it for a little while, and even paws at it before turning around and heading back up towards the mountains in the distance.   
  
“-bloody insane?! What the hell were you thinking?! Jack!”   
  
Jack snaps his attention from the Wolf over to Bunny, who looks absolutely FURIOUS.   
  


“You’re lucky that we were past the border for the barrier. Gods Jack, I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours, but that was stupid!”   
  
Jack frowns at Bunny and points to his bleeding side. “What, even stupider than you? You just HAD to go all hero and try to hold back the Wolf on your own, didn’t you? If I hadn’t come out here and stopped it, you’d be Wolf chow!”

 

Bunny opens his mouth to retort, but quickly shuts it, grabs Jack’s wrist and begins to drag him back to the Workshop. They are quiet for the rest of the walk back, and Jack can’t help but grin at the back of Bunny’s head. “Over dressed much?” he remarks on all of Bunny’s layers of clothing, who retorts with a muffled huff as he pulls his scarf higher up his face, causing Jack’s grin to get wider.   
  
Tooth meets them just outside with a large bundle of blankets and a an expression that was a cross between incredibly worried, and absolutely FURIOUS..   
  
“Jack oh my god, are you crazy?! What were you thinking?! Are you TRYING to freeze to death?! You’re not wearing any shoes, or even a proper coat, oh gods you’re going to get hypothermia GET IN HERE!”   
  
She continues panicking over him all while draping him in layers of blankets and making him put thick wool socks and a pair of boots on. “How do your feet feel? Can you move them? Does it hurt?” She keeps yelling and coddling him all at the same time, and all Jack can do is laugh as she and Aster drag him into the garage. North looks a combination of worried and furious as well, but sees that Tooth has taken care of yelling at Jack so he turns to Bunny.   
  
“Ah, you my friend, are very stupid.”   
  
Bunny just shrugs and accepts a blanket from one of the yeti. “Ah, stupid yeah, but at least I’m alive and stupid, yeah? Besides, the beast was about to pounce on us before we even got across the border, wouldn’t have made it otherwise.”   
  
North huffs and is about to state an argument when he sees the Bunny’s ripped Jacket, and the dark splotches around it.   
  
“Bunny! You’re bleeding!”   
  
North’s exclamation immediately brings Tooth’s worrying away from Jack and onto Bunny. She grabs his torn coat to lift it up, much to his displeasure, to reveal four angry gashes that go across his chest down to his hip.    
  
“It’s not that bad, I’ve had worst,” He grumbles, swatting Tooth’s hands away so he can pull his coat back down. Jack rolls his eyes but grins as Tooth fusses over Bunny instead of him.   
  
“Ok, that’s it, both of you, to the medical wing, NOW!” She points towards the door and Jack continues to snicker at Bunny, who follows behind him, and gives the back of his leg a playful kick.

 

When they reach the medical wing, Tooth marches them into one of the rooms that has two beds it it and points to them. “Sit down, both of you. Bunny, take your coat off. Jack, how are you feeling? You need anything warm to drink? Tea? Hot chocolate?”    
  
Jack just laughs and waves her off. “Tooth, really I’m fine. I didn’t even feel the cold.”   
  
She looks at him as if he’s grown two extra heads. “Jack, it’s -15 degrees outside. It may have just been an adrenaline rush, perhaps it caused you to not feel the cold. I still want to take a look at your feet, to make sure they are ok.”   
  
Bunny’s finished stripping off his torn coat and undershirt, and as Tooth starts to examine his wounds. “It’s not as bad as it could have been, but it’s still pretty deep. I’ll clean it up then put some wraps on it. You’re going to have limited mobility for a while, so no training or doing stupid stunts in the gym for a few days, alright?”    
  
Bunny grumbles in defiance, but Tooth pokes his side frowning deeply, and he gives in. “Alright, alright, I’ll take it easy, Gee, watch the pokin.”   
  
Jack just laughs at the exchange and Tooth looks over at him and smiles. “Jack, why don’t you come over here and help me clean Aster up, since you seem to be doing just fine.   
  
“Wait what?” Both Jack and Bunny say in unison. Tooth can’t help but laugh at them as Bunny  shoots her an flustered glare and Jack blushes bright red.   
  
“I-I don’t really know anything about this uh, medical stuff. I don’t want to hurt him.”   
  
“Oh nonsense, it’s easy! Come here, I’ll show you.” She looks at Aster and grins, who only continues to glare at her.   
  
Tooth puts a small dish on the nightstand and fills it partly with water and the other part with something that smells like it could clean the bright red paint job off North’s sleigh.   
  
“Oh GOD what is that?” Jack wrinkles his nose, and he can tell that Bunny isn’t exactly comfortable with the smell either.   
  
“An antibacterial medicine. Just to clean off the blood, and clean out the wound. It’ll sting a bit," she says to Bunny with a wink, who just rolls his eyes at her. “I’m going to go check on the yeti that went with you to make sure they are all ok as well, I’ll be back in a bit. When you are done Jack, go ahead and put these on the cuts then wrap him up with these.”

 

She shoves some gauze, bandages, and other miscellaneous medical supplies into Jack’s hands before waving and practically skipping out the door.   
  


“Uh, okay then?” Jack sets the supplies down on the bed next to Bunny then grabs the rag out of the bowl. “So um, I guess I’ll start cleaning you up now?”   
  
Bunny sighs and rolls his eyes. “Yeah, go on ahead I guess. Ain’t gonna kill me.”   
  
Jack snickers softly and dips the rag in the bowl before carefully pressing it against one of the dark oozing wounds on Bunny’s chest. He lets out a hiss as the medicine kicks in and flinches.

 

“Ah fuck that does sting.” He chuckles, trying to lighten the mood, but Jack can practically see right through it.   
  
“Sorry, I’m being as gentle as I can," he mumbles, dipping the rag again and continuing to clean the wounds, trying not to think about how close he was to Bunny who just happened to also be shirtless. His face starts turning pink, the blush going up to his ears and he attempts to hide it by keeping his face low, concentrating on Bunny's chest. Yeah, okay, nevermind that wasn’t helping at all.   
  
After a few minutes passes by, Jack starts to feel uncomfortably hot with all the blankets draped around him, and the boots that Tooth had made him wear.    
  
“Sorry, gimme a sec, it’s getting a bit hot in here.” He tosses the blankets onto the bed, kicks off the shoes, and peels off the socks, throwing them somewhere off to the side. Bunny chuckles as Jack sighs in relief and goes back to cleaning his wounds.   
  
“Hey uh, sorry for yelling at you. I was just…..”   
  
“Worried?” Jack finishes without even looking up at him.   
  
“Yeah. Look, I’ve already held your lifeless body once before and uh, I really don’t wanna have to do it again. I’ve actually started to grow attached to you, believe it or not," he jokes.   
  
Jack just snorts and puts the bloodied rag back in the bowl when he’s all finished cleaning Aster up. “Is that supposed to be a compliment?”   
  
“Well, yeah.” Bunny shoots him a lopsided grin and it takes Jack everything not to melt into a puddle right there at the sight of his smile. Instead he blushes darker and grabs the gauze off the bed next to Bunny.   
  
“Yeah well, maybe I’ve kinda grown attached to you too.”   
  


“Oh have you?” Bunny’s grin widens as he watches Jack patch him up.   
  
“Yeah.” Jack finally finishes wrapping him up and sits back, frowning at his work. “I don’t think I did this right.”   
  
Bunny chuckles and runs a hand over the messily done wrappings. “It’s fine, I’m sure Tooth will fix it later.” He looks up at Jack with a soft smile, and Jack feels the urge to melt into a puddle grow stronger.   
  
“So uh, what was that you did back there?” Bunny asks after a moment of silence. “You uh, knocked the Wolf back, but you didn’t touch him.”   
  
“Oh, that. Uh, I think I might have figured out what my magic is. Well, at least one of them anyways.”   
  
“Oh yeah? Wanna demonstrate?”   
  
“Ahaha, yeah uh, probably not a good idea to do it in here. I think Tooth would kill me if she came back in and all her stuff was knocked over.”   
  
“Well, how about you just tell me what you think it is? Maybe from there I can help you figure it out more.”   
  
Jack leans back in the chair and bites at his lip. “Well, I’m not one hundred percent sure but uh, I think I can control the wind.”   
  
“You can what now?” They both jump and turn to see Tooth walking through the doorway with a grin on her face. “Sorry, was I interrupting something? Did I hear you’ve figured out your magic Jack?”

  
Jack laughs and shakes his head. “It’s just an assumption, I don’t know for sure. But when I ran out to go help Bunny, I could feel the wind. Almost like it was trying communicate me? Or at least I think it was. I was kind of distracted by Bunny, I didn’t really hear what it might have been saying. But when I swung my staff it just felt like, this huge amount of energy rushing right through me. Is that how using magic always feels?”   
  
Tooth shrugs and goes over to inspect Jack’s work. “Not always, usually only if your emotions are at their peak, or if you are trying to cast a strong spell. It also depends on the magic and skills the person has as well. I’ll try and see if I can’t get North to lend you some of his books on magic. There are so many different types, it’s sometimes hard to remember them all.” She begins to undo Jack’s work to redo it but Bunny smacks her hand away and glares. She lets out a snort and goes over to her medical bag on the desk on the other side of the room. While she’s distracted, Bunny looks over at Jack and shoots him a grin, but pauses when he sees a thin, pale line on Jack’s cheek.   
  
“Oh hey Jackie, you got something on your cheek.” He leans forward till he’s face to face with Jack and strokes his thumb across Jack’s cheek, causing Jack to flush and jump up from the sudden touch.    
  
“I uh, gotta go let the kids know you’re okay I’ll see you later BYE TOOTH.” He doesn’t give Bunny a chance to say anything as he rushes off down the hall towards the lift to take him down to the nursery. The entire ride down, he keeps replaying the feeling of Bunny stroking his thumb across his cheek and he can’t help the blush that darkens across his pale skin and groans into his hands. “Gods I’m a mess.”

 

* * *

Aster gapes at Jack as he rushes out of the room, not even giving him a chance to say anything. After he’s long gone, he looks down at his hand to see what he scraped off Jack’s cheek.    
  
“It’s….. ice?” He mutters in confusion. He looks closer and sees flecks of red in it, and as the ice melts in his hand it takes him a moment to realize that it’s blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH HEY LONG TIME NO SEE.  
> Yeah, I know it's been a while. I'm leaving in a four day vacation tomorrow, and have been working on this chapter since last week. I really wanted to post it before I left, but I've been so busy getting things taken care of for my trip so this took me a while, but look, a new chapter! 8D  
> Thanks clever-corgi for helping me with the editing you are the best bruh!  
> Leave a comment and let me know what you think ovob  
> Have some arts while you're at it, made by my friend Frostedpaws over on tumblr!  
> http://moonlit-cravings.tumblr.com/post/75319877921/frostedpaws-gall-freaking-darn-it-i-messed-up  
> http://moonlit-cravings.tumblr.com/post/73787247530/frostedpaws-commission-work-done-for  
> And this was drawn by inkblotbun over on tumblr  
> http://moonlit-cravings.tumblr.com/post/102493537644/commission-i-got-from-inkblotbun-of-my-jack-and


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